A/N: Hey you lovely and loyal readers, I'm finally back.
I'm sorry for the delay and shortened chapter that follows, but I'm back in school after a year and it's been kicking my ass. It's difficult to find time and enthusiasm to write.
That said, I haven't abandoned this story, so don't think that! It's just going to take me longer to update and the chapters will probably be shorter. If I ever intend to abandon this story – which I don't – I will be sure to let you know.
Thanks to my beta, livingdeadblondegirl/livingdeadblondequeen for editing so quickly and listening to me babble on about this fan-fiction for the past month even though I've been writing at a snail's pace.
I hope my update makes up for 1x03 of T.O.
Sorry again for taking so long to update!
He yawned as he pushed his sketchpad across Elijah's desk in frustration.
The ideas he had were not the ideas he wanted to depict.
All he could see was her; all he wanted to draw was her.
He didn't want to sketch and paint apocalyptic cityscapes consumed by dark colours and straight lines.
What he wanted to grace his paper and canvas with the gold of her hair and creamy curves of her skin.
He rubbed his hands over his face as he yawned once more.
Sleep did not come easy to him the night before, in fact, he was certain it had not come at all.
He lied awake for hours, staring up at the ceiling, unable to shake his thoughts of her.
All he could think about was that night, the words of advice Stefan had given to him, the drunken words Caroline had said.
His mind would wander over her flirtatious advances while his blood would wander to his lower half. Her naughty invitations and admissions were on a constant loop as he considered whether or not she meant any of it. Did she really miss his touch as much as he missed hers?
The fact that she was asleep in her room on the other side of the wall made his thoughts even more difficult to bear.
She was so close, and yet probably further away than she ever had been.
When he was done with the more erotic thoughts and images of her, he'd inevitably think about the more serious things she had let slip in her drunken state.
He couldn't forget the way she had promised him so desperately that she wouldn't get feelings for him this time. If she spoke with any ounce of truth, what she had implied made his stomach knit itself into knots. Over the course of that weekend they had spent together in celebration of Elijah and Elena's marriage, her feelings for him had begun to extend beyond mere sexual attraction.
His feelings for her had done the same, though he refused to admit it at the time.
Rather than relenting to his emotions, he had left her that night instead.
Now, that action was coming back to haunt him.
He winced as he replayed the final questions she had posed to him last night before she had drifted off to sleep.
"Why did you leave that night?" he heard her voice ask. "Why don't you want me? Am I not good enough for you?"
They affected him the same as they had the night before.
He hated the pain he had evidently caused her. He hated that he left her with lingering questions that left her to contemplate her inadequacy.
She was far from that.
It was his own inadequacy - not hers - that had pushed him through the door that night over a year ago. He didn't deserve her. She deserved someone much better than him. He had already hurt her once.
He had let his own admission sink in last night as he sat her beside, stealing a few more moments with her as she slept.
Her hair had been mussed and her makeup smudged, but she was still mesmerizing to him.
When his own eyes began to grow heavy he tucked her in and headed for his own room despite the yearning he had to lay down beside her.
Restless sleep had not been uncommon for him since he first arrived here, though initially it had to do with thoughts of his brother, Elena, and worries over being thrust into fatherhood by a simple document and few signatures.
Those thoughts were still with him, but much of his mind was now occupied by Caroline.
He had thought about her in between bouts of sleep until Grayson woke up screaming into the monitor just after seven that morning.
Needless to say, he was now exhausted.
He had kept Grayson busy all morning while Caroline slept.
When he finally put Grayson down for his morning nap, he fully planned on taking one himself, but he couldn't sleep regardless of how tired he felt.
Instead, he had tried to spend his free time sketching, but that effort had proven futile.
He pushed himself back from Elijah's desk in defeat and considered what else he could do to occupy his mind.
As his eyes roamed over Elijah's bookshelves, he was reminded of Elijah's journals.
He slipped into the bedroom as quickly as he could, digging through Elijah's bottom drawer once more for the collection of journals he had found the last time.
Piling them into a stack, he closed the drawer, leaving the room as discreetly as he could - as though he was doing something he shouldn't be doing.
He set the journals down on Elijah's desk, initially only sifting through the first entry of each book to order them chronologically.
He was still reluctant to delve into Elijah's thoughts even though his brother was no longer here.
Selecting the first journal Elijah had begun when he was barely a teenager, he ran his hand along the worn front cover; it was just a simple notebook.
As he looked it over in his hands, he debated whether or not to open it.
Once he opened it there was no going back.
He knew the content would be difficult to digest, not only because his brother was gone and this journal was one of the only things he had left of him, but because he was certain the journals would recall memories he'd rather just forget.
More than that, he didn't want to do anything that might be considered disrespectful. Was it appropriate for him to explore his brother's personal thoughts, even if he was no longer here?
Would Elijah have wanted him to read what he had written?
Surely Elijah wasn't hiding any deep dark secrets that he didn't already know about as his brother. He wasn't expecting to read an entry that detailed cleverly concealed murders or robberies. He wasn't expecting to find out that Elijah had secretly hated him all these years, the bond of their brotherhood had proven otherwise – although he wouldn't be surprised to read countless bitter entries detailing their frivolous fights over the years, likely referring to him by every curse word he could imagine.
He smirked at that thought as he recalled their fights. He had been such a menace to Elijah when they were younger, but Elijah had never been so innocent himself.
Sighing, he sat back in the chair, weighing the journal in his hands as the decision of whether or not to read it weighed on his mind.
His eyes roamed over the desk's surface, practically untouched since Elijah had last sat in the very spot he was in now.
He glanced at a framed black and white photo of Elijah holding a newborn Grayson. He swallowed back the emotion that threatened to escape him. Thinking about Grayson never having Elijah the way he had him growing up never failed in its ability to get to him.
Looking back down at the book, he thought about what Caroline had said.
If Elijah hadn't wanted them read, he would have stated that in the will. Instead, it had said plainly that Elijah wanted him to keep them for Grayson to read when he was older.
As Caroline pointed out, Grayson would read them one day and have questions. Next to Elijah himself, he was the only one who could best interpret his words.
In addition to his responsibility to Grayson, at the end of the day he simply wanted to read them to be close to his brother in hopes he could derive some sense of indirect guidance from his words – a semblance of the direct guidance he had depended on from his brother for so many years, even if he had pretended not to hear it.
"I don't think he would blame you for wanting to maintain a connection to him. You two were very close. I'm sure there's nothing written there that you don't already know on some level. If he believed he could trust you with Grayson, then I'm sure he knew he could trust you with his thoughts."
Caroline's prior words of reassurance settled his mind and he began to skim cautiously through the pages.
As he flipped through the pages, too anxious to stop at just one and begin reading, a particular date caught his eye: December 25th, 1995.
He winced.
That had been a bittersweet Christmas, one he would never forget.
"I hate my father," read the first line of the entry.
He was not surprised.
"I hate my mother," he read the second line.
Time had separated him from the raw emotions that came out of that day, which is probably why he remembered it as bittersweet as opposed to the disaster Elijah's venomous teenage words had painted it out to be.
While his mother had always gone to great lengths to see that the house was decorated to rival the Lockwood's, and his parents ensured they had the best gifts to rival the other kids' at school, Christmas was anything but a joyous occasion for their family.
"I guess I should get used to them ruining Christmas by now. Every year it's never any different," Elijah's younger self complained.
"Father was supposed to be home from Washington on Christmas Eve, but he didn't get home until tonight. Who holds an emergency business meeting on Christmas morning?" Elijah complained.
They had all been naive back then. Of course nobody called a business meeting on Christmas morning. As they would come to realize soon after that, business was not all their father did during the week in Washington.
"Mother made us wait to open our gifts until he got home. It wasn't a big deal to me, but she shouldn't have made the younger ones wait like that. We didn't open them until after we ate a cold dinner, waiting for Father to get home. He didn't care to see us open our gifts anyways. He had important phone calls to make. Neither of them cared. Mother almost fell asleep watching us from all the wine she drank today.
There were lots of gifts, but none of us – not even Henrik – was excited to open them.
Father shouted at us for being ungrateful.
We aren't ungrateful.
How does he expect us to be excited when he ruined Christmas morning?
The gifts were great. Finn and I even got a computer like we asked for. Everyone seemed to get what they wanted except for Niklaus.
All Niklaus wanted was some good paints and an easel to paint at. Father told him that even Santa thought painting was for sissies. When Rebekah asked why Santa didn't want to see Niklaus happy on Christmas, Father laughed and told her Santa wasn't real. He made Rebekah and Kol cry. Henrik is still too young to understand.
After father left to make his business calls, we tried to do everything to cheer them up.
Not even the present me, Finn, and Niklaus made for Rebekah could cheer her up completely.
She loved the doll house we made out of wood and cardboard for her dolls and furniture, but the Santa thing really upset her.
The night was made even worse when Mother realized we used some of her old drapery and wallpaper to decorate it with.
Then Father got mad because Mother got mad, and he was even angrier when he found out we used some tools from the garage to build it.
He wasn't mad because they were dangerous, he was mad because he said we probably wrecked them. He doesn't use them anyways. He probably doesn't even know how to use them.
When he threatened to put the house out at the curb for garbage day that upset Rebekah even more.
He wouldn't be that cruel to Rebekah, but not even Rebekah can escape Father's mean jokes.
Niklaus got so mad at him. He told Father what everyone was thinking, but knew better than to say to his face. Maybe Niklaus is just braver than me and Finn.
Father hit him hard for talking back.
I tried to get Father to stop by telling him that Rebekah's doll house was my idea, but he didn't care. He kept going after Niklaus.
He's always so hard on him.
Mother let it happen.
Niklaus didn't even cry this time.
I hate Father.
I hate Mother.
I hate Christmas."
He flipped the page over, and closed his eyes.
Elijah's journal recollection of that day brought back all the emotions he had felt that Christmas.
That was the day he truly started to hate his parents, too.
When his father hit him that night for standing up to him for Rebekah, he felt nothing. He had stopped caring. He had accepted his father's resentment. He knew then that he could do nothing to change how his father felt about him. His father would always hate him. Now he knew why, but then it was more difficult for him to understand
While Elijah's journal entry had dug up old bitter feelings, it also seemed to reinvigorate him when it came to custody of Grayson. It reaffirmed for him why Elijah had not mentioned them in the will. It reaffirmed his commitment to do everything he could to ensure that Grayson would never end up with them.
Deciding he no longer wanted to take such a distant trip down memory lane to explore their troubled childhood, he picked up one of the more recent notebooks.
After scanning through some entries that detailed his stressful days of medical school, another familiar date jumped out at him: his birthday.
It was two birthdays ago. He remembered it well because Elijah had spent his last birthday making up for his absence.
Elijah had arranged for the weekend off and was planning to come to New York. A few days before, he had cancelled the trip citing a last minute mandatory medical conference in Boston as the reason.
He accepted the excuse at face value, having no reason to suspect otherwise.
As he scanned the page, however, it became clear that Elijah had missed his birthday for a different reason entirely: Elena Gilbert.
Quickly putting the pieces together, he found himself smirking at his brother's behaviour.
There was nothing left to do but laugh at the fact that his brother had skipped out on his birthday to attend a boring medical conference to get laid.
The timing of the conference coincided well with the beginning of Elena and Elijah's relationship, if he remembered correctly.
"Bastard," he murmured jovially under his breath as he thought about all the times Elijah had lambasted him for indulging too much, stressing the, 'bros before hoes' mentality, albeit in a more refined way.
Of course, had Elijah actually been here, he might have been inclined to sock his brother in the stomach - playfully of course - for lying to him, but he couldn't
It's not like he was innocent of the wrong himself; he had lied to Elijah more times than he could recall to keep him off his back, but that had mostly been confined to when he was younger.
He supposed they were even now.
Besides, as much as he might want to punch his brother for bailing on his birthday, he'd probably also have to pat him on the back in approval; attending a medical conference with the nurse you fancy in hopes of impressing her and getting into her pants was a genius idea.
He found himself chuckling at Elijah's apparent swagger.
Truth be told, if he was in Elijah's shoes and had to choose between attending his brother's birthday and the possibility of getting laid, he'd have probably chosen the latter as well.
He decided to read the entry in detail, curious to know how Elijah's important medical conference played out. He snickered at the thought. Hopefully Elijah had enough foresight to keep these entries PG. Sure, they had the occasional brother talk about their sex lives, but he wasn't at all interested in reading about Elijah's in any graphic detail.
So, he proceeded to read with caution.
"It's safe to conclude that this was the most exciting medical conferences I have ever been to," the first line read.
He smirked.
"I feel slightly guilty for abandoning Niklaus on his birthday..."
Only slightly guilty? He wondered amusedly.
"...but Elena was going to Boston this weekend, not New York. So, Boston it was. Originally, I had no intention of going to the conference. My attendance wasn't mandatory, but as a new nurse, Elena's was. She had never attended a national conference before and was nervous to go alone. Thus, how could I refuse her when she asked me to accompany her? I'm finding it increasingly impossible every day to say no to those dark eyes and innocent smile of hers.
I had considered this weekend might be an opportunity to take things further in our relationship...to move beyond our friendship and the casual dating relationship we'd formed. I wanted more from her on every level. I was tired of holding back and feeling like I had to restrain how I felt about her.
Even though living with her for the past few months as a platonic friend to help her maintain her family home has sparked all sorts of rumours at the hospital anyways, once I finally got up the nerve to ask her on a date upon her graduation, Elena insisted we take things slow and keep them discreet. She didn't want anyone to suspect that her success in nursing school or at the hospital was anything less than meritorious, which I understand.
I thought it was torturous living with her in the same house before we acknowledged the attraction between us. It's been even worse since. How can I take things slow when we spend practically every moment with one another? When she walks around the house in only her robe without the slightest idea of how she's taunting me?
I've never felt this way about anyone. I've never been so consumed by someone the way I am with her. Her beauty - inside and out - is astounding. I would be lying if I said this was a recent feeling; from the moment we met, I've been captivated by her.
I feel more for her than I ever thought imaginable, probably more than I would care to ever admit to anyone - especially Niklaus. I would never hear the end of it from him.
Surely he'd accuse me of emasculating myself, though being with Elena feels like quite the opposite.
I've never been happier, or more excited for tomorrow.
This weekend solidified all of that.
This weekend I discovered that Elena felt the same.
I also discovered this weekend that Ms. Gilbert is not as innocent as I thought she was which has only endeared me to her more.
Though initially she claimed we were to share a hotel room because all the rooms were booked due to the conference, I later found out that there were lots of vacant rooms available, and that she only used that as an excuse to have us stay in the same room together.
The first night was more than awkward to say the least. We had never shared a room before or slept so close together.
When she turned to face me in bed to talk, as we often did vertically and under less tense circumstances, I couldn't hold back from kissing her.
Things escalated from there, but I foolishly pulled away before they could go any further.
I didn't want to push Elena, or ruin things by having them go to fast.
That only served to put more distance between us, and we spent Saturday avoiding the issue as we attended various lectures and workshops.
By the end of the day I had come to the conclusion that I simply needed to take a chance and confront Elena about how I felt
Though we were expected to attend a dinner that evening as part of the conference, I made other arrangements and suggested we skip it.
We dined at a restaurant that overlooked the city, and then afterwards we walked the streets.
She held my hand as we walked.
It was in the park just in front of our hotel where I told her how I felt and that I wanted us to be more than what we were.
Luckily, she didn't reject me.
She kissed me instead and told me the truth about the hotel room.
We made it back to that room in record time. I don't think I've ran that fast since I chasing after Henrik when he was young.
We spent the evening and the following morning taking full advantage of that single king-sized bed and room service- skipping out on the conference's Sunday morning breakfast and lecture - until we had to leave for our flight back to Virginia.
As I write this, our flight is just about to land.
A few moments ago, Elena referred to me as her boyfriend to one of the flight attendants.
I haven't been able to stop smiling since.
Indeed, this has been one of the best medical conferences I've ever been to.
Perhaps Niklaus will forgive me for skipping out on his birthday one day when he understands what it means to be completely and utterly at the mercy of a woman.
Regardless of what he might say, or what the hospital might think, it's impossible for me to regret this weekend."
He looked up once he read to the end of the entry.
It wasn't until a few moments later that he realized he probably had the stupidest grin on his face.
He could recall Elijah calling him after that weekend to check in and see how his birthday was. Elijah had rambled on about how boring the medical conference had been.
Since when did boring become a synonym for exciting?
It was impossible for any part of him to be upset with Elijah, especially now. Reading about Elijah's happiness with respect to Elena was comforting. It was a nice distraction to read about the happier moments in Elijah's life. It provided him with a fleeting sense of contentedness.
Or maybe the reason it was impossible for him to be angry with Elijah was because his brother's prophetic words were coming true. He was beginning to think he understood all too well what it meant to be at the mercy of a woman.
He sympathized with Elijah's journal entry more than he should.
Living with the woman you couldn't have was all too familiar to him. How ironic was it that he would find himself in the same house a few years later pining for his roommate as Elijah had done? He laughed at how ridiculous it was.
To his trepidation, he found himself relating to Elijah in ways that went beyond the stirrings of arousal he received at the sight of Caroline in her pyjamas, or her dishevelled state when she returned from her runs. It was more than that.
He wanted more from Caroline. He wanted more, and that's why it was so torturous to live with her - being taunted with the illusion of more.
Like Elijah, he had never felt this way for anyone. He didn't think it was possible to be so enamoured with someone. He didn't think it was something he was capable of. He revelled in it and resented it all at the same time.
Unlike Elijah, however, he wasn't ready to take a chance because he wasn't confident Caroline would be willing to give him one.
It's not that he wouldn't understand her rejection, but he didn't think he'd be able to bear it if it came down to that. It was obvious that moving on from her was easier said than done.
Moreover, he was worried how his admission and her subsequent rejection would impact Grayson.
He didn't want to jeopardize the semblance of a family dynamic they were rebuilding for him.
As much as he might long for her, he had to be rational about this. He couldn't let his feelings cloud his judgement.
With that, he decided to skip ahead in Elijah's journal for another birthday he was curious about: Grayson's.
Expectedly, there wasn't an entry on the exact date of Grayson's birthday: September the seventh, but there was one dated a few days later.
"After months of suspense, I can finally say that I'm writing this in the wee hours of the morning after helping Elena with our very loud, and very hungry newborn son - Grayson James. Much to our anxiety and Elena's discomfort he arrived a few days late, but nevertheless, he's now here.
Elena delivered him at 1:24 in the morning on September the seventh after hours in labour. He weighed seven pounds nine ounces. It's only been a week, but with the amount he's eating, he's going to double his birth weight in no time at all. He already feels heavier to us, but it's probably because our arms aren't used to holding a baby every day.
It's amazing how quickly you can fall in love with a stranger, and how much deeper in love you can fall for someone you already care for. From the second I laid eyes on Grayson he was everything to me. As for Elena, I didn't think it was possible to love her any more. It's a terrifying and incredible feeling to share such a significant common interest and goal with someone beyond one another. Even amidst the sleepless nights, Grayson has brought us closer together. Though I'm a little nervous for myself, I'm not at all worried about Elena; motherhood fits her like a glove.
Despite that, and despite our experience in the medical field, we're both still trying to wrap our minds around Grayson's existence and the fact that he came from us.
Though I was hesitant about the unexpected pregnancy at first, I can say definitively that I am glad fate decided to intervene and render our precautions ineffective. It's only been a few days but I can't imagine our lives without Grayson.
We decided to name him Grayson after Elena's father. I had suggested the name to Elena a few months back and was probably the only name we could both agree on. There was no way I was naming him 'Elijah Junior' or 'E.J.' for short, no matter how much Elena pestered me about it. It seemed more fitting that we name him after a man that has had such a significant impact on both of our lives. I looked up to Grayson as a mentor. In the short while that I knew him, he was more of a father to me than my own father ever was. I can think of no better way to honour him. He'll live on through our son.
He shares with me a middle name, mainly because Elena insisted that Grayson retain something from me apart from his last name since - as I continuously need to remind myself - I am his father.
I'm a dad; Grayson's my son. Sure, we've had over seven months to prepare for this new reality, but I still can't believe it.
I've always wanted to be a father, to prove to myself and my children that it could be different than it was for me and my siblings growing up. That said, I've always been reluctant for fear that I wouldn't succeed.
Niklaus laughed at my reservations and assured me that the task of being better than our parents would not be a difficult one to complete. Perhaps he is right.
If there's anyone besides myself, Elena, and Grayson I want to succeed for, it's him. He needs to see that it can be different, that family can be more than just dysfunctional and a source of pain.
I think he caught a glimpse of that this weekend when he flew in for a quick visit to meet his nephew for the first time.
I think he forgot, at least for awhile, our family's troubled past. Instead, Grayson reminded him of the good times we shared growing up, particularly the calm our family had been lulled into, even for the briefest of moments, after Henrik was born.
He was reluctant to hold Grayson at first, having no experience with newborns, but Elena convinced him after my cajoling failed. He and Grayson seemed to take to one another fairly quickly after that.
He may have a low opinion of children in general, but there's no mistaking the way he looked at Grayson, because it's the way Elena and I look at Grayson. You could see the adoration and dutiful concern etched upon his face.
I know Niklaus would never say it outright, he never has been one to wear his heart on his sleeve, but it's not hard to tell how much he already cares for Grayson.
To my surprise his enthusiasm for Elena and me over Grayson's arrival nearly exceeded our own excitement. I'm fairly positive that Caroline's did.
It's a reassuring feeling though, to know that Grayson has people besides me and Elena who love him just as much. Though Niklaus denies a desire to have his own children, I know that if anything were to ever happen to Elena and me that he would step up and ensure that Grayson was well taken care of. He would do that for me, but most importantly, he would do that for Grayson.
Elena and I are hoping to have everyone together to celebrate Grayson's first Christmas in a few months. Caroline already purchased Grayson's Christmas gifts over the summer before he was even born. It's nice that she has something to look forward to this Christmas though. Since her mother passed, the holiday had always been a difficult time for her.
We would also like to take Grayson to New York next summer to visit Niklaus and Bonnie. Elena already has Grayson enrolled in swimming lessons six months from now. There's so much we want to do with him while he's young. We might be getting ahead of ourselves, but time does go by so quickly.
I suppose if I want to experience any of it, I should probably get some sleep while I have the chance."
He closed the journal tightly as he held it in between both hands.
There was a swollen lump in his throat preventing him from reading on further.
His eyes began to sting as he contemplated, as he often did, all the things Elijah would never get to experience with Grayson.
The entry about Grayson really got to him. It was upsetting to read about his brother's hopes for the future knowing how short that future would be cut. While he was comforted by Elijah's confidence in him to take care of Grayson should anything happen to him and Elena, he hated that it had actually come down to that. Elijah should be the one here for Grayson, not him.
But alas, here he was with Caroline instead of his brother and Elena.
That was the hand they had been dealt and they would have to make the best of it. He wanted fulfill all of Elijah's hopes for Grayson. He wanted to prove his brother right - that he would ensure Grayson was well taken care of. He would do that because he owed it to his brother, but he would also do it because he loved Grayson and Grayson was family.
Grayson is who he and Caroline had to focus on.
His scattered thoughts of Grayson, Caroline, his brother, and the past were all interrupted by the sounds of Grayson announcing the conclusion of his nap.
He had been so consumed by the journals that he'd let Grayson sleep longer than he originally intended. He hoped that didn't throw off Grayson's schedule for the rest of the day.
Knowing Caroline was still sleeping off her hangover, and probably wouldn't appreciate being awakened by Grayson's protests, he set the journal down with the others and headed for Grayson's room.
He had left Caroline's door ajar from the night before, not wanting to close it shut and wake her lest she get a second wind and decide she wanted to torture him some more.
Reaching to close it to stifle Grayson's cries, he stopped briefly and peered at her sleeping form.
She was buried in blankets sound asleep.
He smirked at the sight of her dishevelled hair and smeared makeup as he thought about her more innocent and comedic drunken behaviour from the night before.
Of course, his amusement was quickly replaced by a nagging sense of guilt and unrelenting yearning. He felt guilty for hurting her. He had this persistent desire to make it up to her somehow. He wished he could use this opportunity to rewind time and climb in bed beside her and pretend like he had never left her as he did at the hotel that night.
Elijah's words haunted him as he closed her door and headed for Grayson's room.
"Hey, Gray, you can calm down any time now, Uncle Klaus is here," he greeted the little guy eager to escape the confines of his crib. "How was your sleep?"
A smile started to appear on Grayson's face despite the fact that he was still whimpering quietly.
He brought Grayson over to the change table immediately, picking up the unmistakable scent of a dirty diaper.
"I knew I shouldn't have fed you that much," he groaned, attempting to breathe through his mouth as he went through the motions of replacing Grayson's diaper with a fresh one.
He had changed plenty of diapers in the last month or so, but the smell didn't become any easier to bear.
Grayson laughed at his dramatic facial expression as he tossed the soiled diaper in the trash.
"I'm glad my misery could entertain you," he chuckled, wiping Grayson's bottom clean.
Grayson murmured incoherent babble in an attempt to have a conversation with him as he struggled to reach for his necklace that dangled above him.
Both he and Grayson went still when they heard the door open from Caroline's room into the bathroom and the shower turn on.
"Uh oh," he said, capturing Grayson's attention as he fixed a new diaper around his waist. "Sounds like you woke Caroline up. She's not going to be very impressed with you."
Grayson giggled before pursing his lips together to make what sounded like a farting noise.
"I'll tell her you said that," he mused, dressing Grayson back into his navy blue and lime green striped onesie.
He lifted Grayson up from the table when he was finished and secured him against his hip.
"Do you want to help me make breakfast?" he asked Grayson. "I told Caroline I would, so we better go downstairs and get started."
Grayson seemed unenthused by his suggestion, too preoccupied by his necklace which he latched his tiny fist around.
As he headed for Grayson's bedroom door, he paused and observed the collage of photographs on the wall. His eyes went from a picture of Elena and Elijah with Grayson, to one of him and Elijah with Grayson, and then finally to one of Caroline and Grayson.
Elijah's words continued to pound in his mind like a drum.
"It's amazing how quickly you can fall in love with a stranger, and how much deeper in love you can fall for someone you already care for... It's a terrifying and incredible feeling to share such a significant common interest and goal with someone beyond one another. Even amidst the sleepless nights, Grayson has brought us closer together."
A/N: Sorry about the lack of direct klaroline. I hope the indirect klaroline feels make up for it. I promise the next chapter will be very klaroline-centric.
Next chapter: Caroline attempts to recover from her hangover and piece together who she did and didn't kiss from the night before. Klaus's plans for the evening leave Caroline pleasantly surprised. A shirt comes off, trips down memory lane are taken, intimate conversations about life are had, a certain video is watched, Caroline's body betrays her, and a new sleeping arrangement leaves Klaus and Caroline in an awkward position.
Feel free to hate me now for teasing you. Just remember, nothing in my hints are as they seem. I'd love to know what you think, however. I've missed hearing from you!
Thanks again for your patience!