Born Under a Bad Sign

Over the next few days, Klaus makes earnest attempts to step into life with the pack from small tasks like gathering firewood to more complicated ones like rigging traps around a wide perimeter of the camp. Tyler even catches him helping with the clean up after meals. Being in the woods seems to have stripped Klaus of some of his menace and glimpses of the sensitive boy who died shine through the cracks. The wolves notice too. His change in attitude coupled with the promise of protection against the vampires have them tentatively accepting both Klaus and Tyler.

A dozen or so young wolves, so tired of feeling weak against vampires, have already requested to follow Klaus after the month is over. It bolsters his spirits but not as much as Tyler who is elated to watch as Klaus passes a clean plate to a small, tousled-hair boy to dry and put away. If Klaus had stormed in and taken the pack with force, Tyler would have found a way to leave. Seeing the subtle ways the pack begins to accept him, passing him food at mealtimes or inviting him to dance around the fire, is enough to keep Tyler at Klaus's side trying to reach the part of him that Elena saw fit to fall in love with.

The peace isn't held long before Klaus witnesses the first vampire attack. Two teenagers rush back in their four-wheeler from town in a panic. Andrew, the scarred older man, meets them on the edge of camp. "Why were you out so late? What kept you?"

"We just wanted to see a movie. Just once." The taller teen takes a step forward to meet his elder head on.

"You know the rules!" Andrew's voice booms and echoes through the trees as if that alone held power. Klaus tenses next to Tyler, expecting Andrew to strike down the younger man any second.

Tyler leans in to whisper, "Control, Klaus. That's more important." Klaus nods without taking his eyes of the three and soon the rest of the pack have gathered around in a half circle.

"We know, but we thought we would have time," the boy continues.

Andrew steadies his breath and Klaus can feel the tension in the woods ebb with his exhale. "You two know better than this. I expect more from you." He's about to hand out a punishment of menial tasks when the shorter boy interrupts.

"That's not all. We think…maybe…no, one of them definitely spotted us." Fear and shame mix together on his face and within a few heartbeats, Andrew has turned to instruct everyone to pack up essentials. He's barking out orders under the night sky when first blood is drawn.

The two teenagers are yanked into the trees and Andrew's neck twists back at a sickening angle. His head tilts to the moon one last time in a mock howl before his body crumples to the forest floor. The rest of the wolves scatter screaming in different directions. Some lucky ones manage to escape deeper into the woods while others try to locate their family before fleeing.

Tyler doesn't hesitate to show off his new hybrid strength as he tears a vampire off a fallen wolf. His teeth descend and he bites into the shocked man's neck, viciously tearing and mauling until he's pushed off. The damage is done and he'll be dead soon enough. Tyler returns to Klaus, blood dripping off his chin and down his chest.

"Come on!" he calls urgently before going after another vampire.

It has been too long since Klaus was under any kind of attack. It is more chaotic than he remembers and he's certainly never reacted this way to lesser vampires. The wolves, weaker in their human state, are scattering throughout the trees. Klaus spots a woman running past Andrew's body. When she falls into a thicket, a vampire plunges in after her.

Klaus follows her screams down until they stop. The vampire stands over her body, slumped against a tree with her heart in his hands. Klaus is quick to act, breaking both of his legs under him so he has to look up at his attacker.

"I've never understood this grudge to be honest with you. A petty waste of time when you have eternity at your leisure." He snaps an elbow and relishes in the screams. "Surely you could have done something better with your time. Learned an instrument. Read a book." Then the next one and another yowl. He kneels in front of the man now, his eyes a radiant gold. "Now you won't have time for either." He leaves the man to die alone, bitten and unable to move.

Between Klaus and Tyler, they drive the vampires effectively out of camp and along with the others they count the dead and look for the missing.

"Has anyone seen Joshua?" Klaus looks over to Hayley and back away quickly. She huffs until she sees the woman Klaus hadn't managed to save in the group of bodies laid out. "Oh god! It's his…oh god…his mom." The rest of the pack disperses to look for the missing kid, but Klaus has an idea and re-traces his steps down the path back into the thicket. Past the dying vampire and away from the smell of death until he can clearly catch the kid's scent.

As he gets closer, he can hear the choking sobs of a child trying to stifle any sound. He rounds the side of a tree and spots the kid wedged into a crevice between two exposed roots.

"Hey," Klaus starts and the kid turns away from him. His tone is too harsh and he clears his throat, trying for something more tender. "You're Joshua right? We washed dishes together the other day, remember? You had to hand each one back until I got it right."

Slowly, he coaxes the kid out of the tree and into his arms. His weight is heavier than Klaus had expected, but he hadn't often had the opportunity to hold a child in his arms. Marcel was far too old for such behavior by the time Klaus found him and it wasn't as if women were clamoring to offer him their babies.

The kid clings to his neck and Klaus struggles to free some space while not pushing the child off. His aunt comes to grab him and he goes to her easily enough but in the following days, Klaus has a small, innocent shadow trailing his every move through the woods as they search for a new place to set up their camp.

"He really likes you," Tyler comments as he's helping Klaus set up a tent.

"You sound like you can hardly believe someone would."

Tyler makes a noncommittal noise under his breathe. "I like you more or less. Josh really likes you. She, on the other hand…" he trails off and nods his head off in Hayley's direction.

"Her feelings about me are her problem."

"Is that how you feel about Elena?" Tyler prods like a splinter stuck under Klaus's thumb.

"That is an entirely different situation that you can drop any day now."

"You know I can't." They spend the rest of the day like this; Tyler baiting Klaus just enough to raise his anger to see where his level of control is at before stopping. This game doesn't go entirely unnoticed but Klaus can't figure out Tyler's angle yet.

Walking through the booths at the Mystic Falls Fourth of July Festival, Elena imagines raising her child here. She can see him running ahead of her ignoring her reprimands to remain in sight. Even in her day dream, she knows better than to expect adherence to the rules from any child that Klaus had a hand in creating.

Finn splits off from their group when he spots Bonnie and Elena assumes that their date went well based on the jaunt in his step. Her friend waves but waits for Finn to come to her instead of joining up with the larger group. Elena misses those days when all she wanted was to sequester herself away from the world with that one special person.

Rebekah stops at a booth selling hand-crafted jewelry and quickly a group of high school girls are surrounding her, bombing her with questions about who she is and where she's from. A flashing worry settles into amusement at how easily Rebekah impresses the girls. Caroline would be proud. Soon they are following her around and Rebekah is in her element, preening under their undivided attention. Mystic Falls rarely has new girls and she is one hell of a new girl.

Soon, she rejoins the group to let them know she's going to join the cheerleaders for the rest of the night. Elijah suggests Kol go with her and Rebekah wrinkles her nose at the idea.

"I don't need a sitter, Elijah. It's not as if they pose a threat nor do I intend on eating any of my new friends."

"Or just take him because he has been just as restless and bored as you've been?" Elena offers a counterpoint.

"Come, darling sister. I promise I'll be on my best behavior." Kol loops his arm around Rebekah's shoulder and walks her off back in the direction of the giggling girls.

As the sun starts to set, Elena and Elijah settle down on a tartan blanket to get ready for the fireworks. She passes him a bag of cut fruit she packed but he shakes his head. She feels so motherly in the moment that she has to laugh at herself.

"You used to attend this events with your family?"

"Yeah, my parents loved this town. Jeremy not so much. I think it was always his intention to get out."

"What about you?"

"I guess I hadn't really thought about it. I figured I would go to Whitmore and eventually medical school and come back home to take over my dad's practice."

"You have time for that if it's still your dream."

"Oh yeah," she laughs running her belly. "I'm about to have all the time in the world."

"Well, perhaps not immediately."

"No, I know. I don't know if that's my dream anymore. I lived right on the surface for so long that I don't know what I want really."

"You've been enjoying putting together that ledger of your history."

"Yeah, but that's just a fun project. It isn't a career. I can't make money from something so self-indulgent."

"Elena, you have no need to worry about such a banal thing as money or bills. We have an abundance and you'll be taken care of. You never took me up on my offer before, but I am now insisting. I'll not have the mother of my nephew stressed about a resource of which we have plenty."

She leans into his shoulder and sighs a thank you. It isn't often that he speaks to her with that finality in his voice, but she always knows when his insistence is too strong to fight or maybe she is just too tired to be stubborn. Either way, when the fireworks begin he holds her close and she lets him. With each burst of color, she thinks about the different paths her life could take and what she wants for herself.

After the holiday, Rebekah announces to the family her intention to attend school for the upcoming year. At first, Elena is confused why she would want to subject herself to something so boring, but Rebekah explains with delight all the reasons she's excited to go to school. The parties and the dances. The boys and sports.

"I've never had the opportunity to properly do sports and I'm fairly adept at athletics. Ask Elijah! I was skilled at swordplay had our father allowed it. And prom! Elena! Prom and limos and slumber parties and…"

"Boys?"

"Yes! Boys and love and romance." Rebekah's eyes are full of earnest hope that makes Elena feel like a teenager again too.

"You have a shinier version of high school in your head than I do. I think if you go, then Kol should too."

"Why?" she whines just as Kol protests.

"Absolutely not!"

"Carol Lockwood obviously knows about you all with what your brother did to Tyler, but that doesn't mean we don't want to blend in where we can. You two are too close in age, appearance at least, for one of you to be a high school student and the other to be acting like…"

"A debaucherous leech?" Rebekah offers.

"Wasn't going to say that." Elena sighs and rubs her temples, a gesture she's been picking up from Elijah. "Kol, think of the parties. You'll practically be king of that scene."

"Perhaps school would be worth it."

"Or all the teachers you'll be able to one-up with your vast knowledge and experience?"

He glances at her sideways and concedes, "I'm impressed Elena. You've learned something our brother never could."

"What is that?" she asks as he leans in close until their lips are nearly touching and he's staring almost through her eyes.

"How to manipulate me to get what you want," he whispers and she blushes, pushing him off.

"I'll get you two signed up."

"No, need!" Rebekah practically cheers. "I've already done it. Well, for myself at least. Kol will need to handle his own registration."

At brunch, Elena listens with glee as Bonnie recounts her date with Finn from the fumbling over who would pay to the slow buildup over the armrest to hold hands. She's about to ask if they did anything after the movie when her phone rings. She tries to dismiss it but after she tells Bonnie its Liam calling, her friend insists and Elena immediately regrets telling her about their run-in at the market.

"Hey, sorry can't really talk. I'm at brunch with a friend." She pauses and licks her lips. "Ah, I don't know. I mean it sounds fun, but I'm just not sure that's a good idea." She turns to the side trying to avoid Bonnie's exaggerated gestures. "I'll think about it, okay?"

"What was that?"

"He keeps asking me out."

"You say that like you didn't give him your phone number." Bonnie has her eyebrow raised and Elena knows from the expression that she can't escape this conversation.

"Look its stupid okay, but I was just testing something out. Klaus made it sound like I was getting people to do what I wanted through some weird…I don't know, power? And I wanted to see if he was right. Liam was so condescending to me during my office visits that I figured it would be a good test to see if Klaus was right."

"So, it worked?"

"I don't know. I just know that he keeps calling to ask me out. It's not right, Bonnie. Look at me? How can he possibly want to take me out? What's his angle taking out a pregnant lady?"

"Well, maybe it worked and Klaus is right. Maybe Amara was some fae child switched at birth and you have some kind of latent power to charm or maybe, shocker," Bonnie laughs as Elena buries her face in her hands, "he likes you? Pregnant or not, Elena, you are allowed to have a life."

"That's not fair, Bonnie Bennett. You can't throw my words back at me like that. It's unsportsmanlike."

"I'm just saying. You don't have to wait forever to be pursued." Bonnie grins as her words propel Elena's eye roll.

"It's weird. I should cut off communication."

"Only if you think it is."

"What if he realizes how bad of an idea it is?"

"What if he doesn't?"

"What if-"

"Elena! Stop! Even if Klaus is right about you, it's not as if you are compelling him or anything. He is still free to make decisions, right? It's a date, not a life or death situation. Literally, the only thing you have to worry about is what to wear. And probably what Klaus would do if he ever saw you two together." She nods slowly thinking about it and though, Bonnie drops the subject when their food arrives, Elena keeps chewing on her argument well past breakfast.

As Rebekah recounts all the promises to attend try outs and party invites she's accepted, Elena thinks that even Caroline would be at a loss for how seamlessly Rebekah has taken over the cheerleading squad without even officially being at school yet.

"Hold still," Elena winces slightly when her hand comes too close to the curling iron and then let's the coiled piece of blond hair bounce down.

"Has she divulged her crush to you yet? Some hopelessly average fellow. Hannah or Sarah's brother. One of them anyway." Kol ducks just in time to avoid a hairspray canister launched at his face.

"No one asked for your opinion!" Rebekah yells as Elena hisses through her teeth, clutching her hand.

"I wasn't kidding, Rebekah," Elena reprimands. "It's fine. You were basically done anyway. The effortlessly beachy look is always in."

"I'm sorry, Elena."

"Seriously, it's okay." Rebekah follows her to the kitchen where she runs her hand under water trying to take the sting out of the burn. "How is it that you and Kol are nearly a thousand and you still fight like…teenagers?"

Rebekah shrugs indifferently, "We are how we are. I've never really given it much thought, but I guess we just haven't changed much. Kol is as annoying as he ever was. Elijah just as protective. I guess now that I'm thinking of it, Klaus is the only one of us who has changed."

She really doesn't want to hear Rebekah muse about Klaus, but her curiosity is often the driver and she can't help asking. "How so?"

"When we were kids, Klaus was always the one who kept me company even when the others were annoyed with their baby sister following them everywhere. He was the one who was there to protect me when I was afraid or take the blame and a beating if it meant sparing me from our father."

"What changed?"

"Klaus always knew our father didn't accept him and I don't think he was really all that surprised when he figured out that he wasn't really his father. That our mother had an affair. I think what truly broke him was that she didn't accept him for what he was, a wolf. Not really. Not in a way that mattered. She wanted him to be her version of a son and that didn't include half of him."

"I hadn't thought…"

"No one does. I don't think even Nik has considered it. I know what my brothers think of me. That I'm a silly girl who is willing to throw everything away for love, but I see more than they do. There are things I understand that they don't."

"I know, Rebekah." Elena grabs her with one arm while she dries off her hand in a towel and pulls her in for a hug.

"Do you think you'd ever give him another chance?" Rebekah's voice is muffled in Elena's shoulders but she still makes out the question. She chews on the soft skin of her cheek before answering.

"I can't really say. I know you have your wonderful memories of him and I have some too, but are they enough? I just don't think the past is enough to sustain any kind of future and I don't see him being any different at this point."

"He was different, Elena, before. And sometimes I see that part of him. That's what's made me stay by his side for so long. Why I stay here because I know him even at times he doesn't know himself. He can't stay away. How could he?" Her voice is so soft towards the end that Elena has to lean in to hear her. When Rebekah gestures to her belly, she understands and nods. At some point, no matter their relationship, she'll have to talk to him about raising their kid.

Kol breaks the silence of the shared moment between the two women and complains that Rebekah is taking too long. Apparently, there is at least one girl in Mystic Falls that has captured Kol's attention and he's anxious to get to the party to see her. Rebekah pounces on the opportunity to tease him and their bickering chatter fades down the hall as they leave.

The house is unusually quite after they leave. Finn is with Bonnie again and as much as Elena enjoys Elijah's company, she isn't in the mood to read in silence next to him tonight. She wants to smile and laugh. She wants to dress up and feel pretty.

"Hey," she's tickled that he picks up after only one ring. "There's a terrible slasher sequel showing in like forty minutes. Do you want to go?" She's even more pleased that he rushes a yes though she declines his offer to pick her up.

She dabs on a touch of make-up and throws her hair up in a high, gravity defying ponytail. By the time she meets him in front of the cinema, he's already bought the tickets and she insists on getting the snacks.

"You look gorgeous, by the way."

"You don't have to lie, Liam. I'm already here with you."

"See, that's actually the one thing I'm pretty terrible at, Elena. Beside manner, lying, and parallel parking. My only weaknesses."

"Oh good, I thought you were going to say something corny like 'and pretty women'."

"No, no. Witty women sure. Wickedly intelligent women, definitely." She likes the feel of his hand hovering protective at her back when she walks up the stairs and she likes it even more that he lets her pick where they sit. When his fingers brush against hers, she blushes but doesn't open her hand to invite in anything further. Sitting there in the dark with him, she feels giddy and young. Despite the conventionally attractive teens being slaughtered on screen, she smiles and doesn't bother hiding it.

As the month comes to an end, Klaus has spent it getting to know the wolves. Josh still follows him around relentlessly, but he appreciates the adoration. Running with Tyler had been the only time he's run with another wolf and even though it is exhilarating to be with another like him, changing with the rest of the wolves at the full moon and running is that freedom amplified.

The group is split almost evenly now with half wanting to take Klaus up on his offer and the other half refusing. Klaus is unsurprised that Hayley has spearheaded an effort to convince the rest to change their minds as the self-appointed head of the remain-as-werewolves camp.

Still, their ability to beat back the vampire made a lasting impression and with Andrew gone, the rest began to look at Tyler and Klaus for guidance. It takes Tyler a couple weeks to realize that Klaus insisting they continue to pick up and move northeast is taking them closer to Virginia.

At the border between West Virginia and Tyler's home state, Klaus and his loyalists break off from Hayley's group and set up their camp in the north part of the state. The idea that maybe Klaus is taking them back home excites Tyler. He's been having fun in the woods, but he is ready for a hot shower and to see his mom again. Knowing he is closer to Elena too, had an effect on him as well.

"Did you really have move us in the dead of night just to get away from Hayley? We still had time left on that deal Andrew made us."

"This had nothing to do with the little wolf. It was evident who wanted to be a hybrid and who didn't. What was the point in staying when their minds would go unchanged? Some people just need to see the offer for themselves before they are moved to accept."

"That sounds vaguely like maturity." Tyler has almost hit the nail on the head with his assessment of Klaus's cowardice in leaving when the rest were sleeping. He hadn't been trying to avoid Hayley, but Joshua. He'd left one of his necklaces behind tied to the kid's tent before leaving. He couldn't stomach the idea of facing the kid for an actual goodbye, but needed to leave a token behind.

A/N: I had a guest review asking that since Elena's blood made Klaus and they were tied together that way, if only she could get pregnant by Klaus. While I think Klaus has to rely on Elena for making hybrids and that there is a substantial power shift between them since he is now tied to her because of her blood, I don't think Klaus is limited in that way. I do really like the idea that Klaus was already obsessed with Petrovas and Elena's blood being what unlocks half of Klaus gives her some kind of power or sway over him. Not necessarily like a sire bond, but it does affect Klaus.

And I definitely really like the imagery of Elena being the mother and Klaus being the father of hybrids. I love these kinds of questions and I really enjoying discussing this. Feel free to drop me an ask anonymously on tumblr if you like!

I'm writing so much ahead on this one to get through August since I'll be doing a short story a day for that month (Elena-centric). I'm hoping that I'll have enough by next month that I can just post a chapter a week while I focus on the August prompt challenge. I'm really excited about these next few chapters though and I hope you like them as much as I'm enjoying writing them. Thank you for reading!