Katherine woke up the next day still dazed from the hangover. Her head pounded as if it had suddenly gotten its own heartbeat, and she felt like throwing up the breakfast she hadn't eaten yet. The room spun as she carefully stood up to grab some water from the kitchen. She brought the rest of the pills Klaus had given her the night before too, because God knew she needed them.
As she made her way down the stairs, she noticed Klaus by the stove, making what looked like fried eggs with vegetables. He threw a glance at her as she neared the bottom of the stairs, seemingly being the only Mikaelson present in the kitchen that morning.
"She's awake," Klaus declared to no one as Katherine entered the kitchen, turning around to smirk at her as she pulled out a chair by the table and took a seat. "It's 1pm, you know."
"Ugh," Katherine groaned as she placed both her elbows on the table and put her head in her hands. "I still feel like I could sleep for another day or two."
"That's why you don't get drunk, especially not as a human," he said simply. "Next thing you know you pass out on your enemy, twice."
Katherine blinked before registering what he had just said, suddenly feeling utterly embarrassed as she hid her increasingly red face in her hands. "Sorry..." she mumbled.
"Oh no, I had quite the fun actually. Seeing my usually oh-so-strong nemesis in such an uncharacteristic state was quite amusing," he said with a smug as he placed a glass of water in front of her.
She still didn't meet his eyes in embarrassment as she accepted the glass of water and quickly emptied it, swallowing two pills as she did. "How did it go last night? Apart from the me thing."
Katherine assumed it had gone quite well due to the good mood Klaus seemed to be in.
"Well, apart from the you thing," he teased, pretending to think about it before continuing, "the leader of the primary werewolf pack here agreed to a hybrid deal, which means I'll have to get your blood as soon as today to uphold my part. The witches however weren't so pleased to be under my rule, but they at least seemed happier with my terms than those of Marcel."
"That's good, I guess..." Katherine wasn't too happy about what her role in the transformation of the werewolf pack would be, but she supposed being a blood bag for a little while couldn't be worse than most things she had experienced in her long life. She didn't really care about Klaus's kingdom business either, but as long as she stayed there in his home, she supposed it was better if the place was peaceful rather than having three species constantly be at war with each other.
Katherine raised her head slightly to look over at the contents of the frying pan, checking if the food was ready soon. Klaus then put down the spatula, letting it rest on the side of the pan as he turned off the stove and started cleaning up any mess that might have spilled.
"So? Am I going to get one or do you want me to starve to death?" she impatiently asked.
"Although the latter sounds rather tempting, I suppose I need you to stick around," he humored as he got out a plate and placed two fried eggs on it, decorating them nicely with some fresh, red paprika before placing it in front of her.
Katherine thanked him before she started digging in, rather hungry after her long nap. Klaus sat down opposite her and pulled out a newspaper as he began to eat as well. She wondered how he had timed this breakfast perfectly to when she would wake up, or if he had simply been making lunch and made some extra in case she woke up around that time. Either way, she was grateful. She herself wasn't exactly the best of a chef.
She didn't even get to eat half her plate, however, before something made her mood drop drastically. She felt a familiar crack in her mouth that made her hand immediately shoot up to her jaw and her eyes teary due to the pain. "Ow..." she mumbled.
Klaus soon glanced up from his newspaper, looking slightly concerned. "What's wrong?"
"I think my tooth fell out," she sulked, somewhat horrified as she could feel a piece of her tooth fall off onto her tongue, making her spit it out into her hand.
Klaus got up and walked over to her side of the table, making her look up at him. "Open your mouth, let me have a look."
Katherine raised a brow but still did as told, reluctantly opening her mouth. He gently grabbed her jaw and pushed her chin up slightly to get a better look. He studied her teeth, making Katherine feel like she was on some sort of dentist appointment before he finally reached a conclusion.
"I'm sorry to say this, but your teeth are decaying. It looks like some sort of gum disease due to your rapid aging."
Katherine rubbed her forehead in distress at the quadrillionth reminder of how she was dying that she absolutely didn't need more of. "You better hold up your side of the deal then, I don't wanna resort to using dentures like some old lady."
"You are an old lady," he said matter of factly as he went to sit back down.
"Wow, rude."
"However, while we're on the topic. I have people at this very moment searching for the best witches in town and beyond, I assure you we'll get a cure in time."
"Great," she groaned as she shoved her plate away, suddenly having lost appetite due to the little incident that had just happened. "I'm going to my room in the meantime, don't make those vampire guard dudes follow me again. I'm not in the mood."
"I can tell them to stay away for the afternoon if you promise to not leave your room. I'm stopping by later, for your part of the deal this time."
"Fine," she shrugged before leaving Klaus to do his own thing while heading right back to her bed.
She had woken up again later that afternoon, and by the grandfather clock standing in the corner, the time had just passed 5 pm. She didn't feel like doing anything, nor did she have the motivation when all she could think about was her impending doom. All she could do was change out of her dress from the night before, which she still hadn't come around to do. Luckily Klaus had already imported her clothes the day before, so she had plenty to choose from.
She slipped out of the dress, threw it on her bed to give back to Rebekah later, and started picking out an outfit. She landed on a casual look - as casual as Katherine Pierce could have it, and threw on a pair of black denim pants. As she was about to put on a laced top, she heard a quick knock and someone enter the door behind her.
She quickly turned around to check who it was, turning beet red when she saw the original hybrid himself walk in.
"Klaus! Get out!" she exclaimed, flustered as she covered herself with the small piece of clothing in her hands.
Klaus rolled his eyes but turned around as she demanded, although his eyes did linger on her for a slight second before he did. "I have seen your body before, Katerina. Besides, you're wearing clothes."
"Not enough for you to see," she hissed as she quickly put on the rest of her outfit.
"Onto another matter, I came to get you for the blood procedure."
"Ugh, fine," she groaned, not pleased with the situation as she walked over to him and started following him down to the basement.
"I am quite lucky that Damon informed me of your newfound humanity, or else I would've never gotten inspired to make this deal with you. To be able to create hybrids again, I suppose I partially have him to thank," Klaus hummed as he opened the door to a room in the cold, dusty basement. It was because of Damon's phone call that he had been able to reflect on his grudge against Katerina and come to the conclusion that with her inevitable death, he figured he owed her some last bit of closure. It allowed him to move past his bitterness and actually see what she had done for him before as something else, so that when he had met her that night by the tower, he hadn't thought about anything else than reconciling with her so that she would agree to this deal.
Katherine let out a huff of shock and disbelief, closing the door behind them rather harshly. "Damon was the one who told you?" she scoffed in disappointment. Up until now, she had naturally just assumed Rebekah was the one to tell him, considering she was the one that had shoved the cure down her throat directly. But knowing it was Damon all along, him having gone behind her back to rat her out to her most feared enemy, she made a mental note to get revenge the next time she saw him.
"You didn't know?" he questioned, continuing when Katherine shook her head in annoyance. "I suppose he will face your wrath once you're cured," he humored. "Sit down."
Katherine took a seat in the wooden chair he gestured towards, placed in the middle of the basement floor. It felt cold and hard against her back, but she suck in her complaints. The room was poorly lit, and the stench of blood was prominent from their countless freezers with blood bags. The wood creaked under her fingers as she tightened her grip around the arms of the chair.
Klaus readied the syringe in his right hand and grabbed her wrist with his left. He brushed his thumb over her gentle skin as he put the needle to her artery. He looked up at her.
"Ready?"
When Katherine gave him a nod in confirmation, he inserted the needle. Katherine flinched a bit but quickly adjusted to the slight pricking in her arm. She had endured far worse pain before anyway, so a bit of blood transfer paled in comparison. It didn't hurt her, but for some reason, her skin was burning underneath his fingers.
Perhaps it was the strange feeling of unfamiliarity. Uncharacteristic, as he had put it earlier. He had been so harsh with her as a vampire, but now that she was human, he treated her more gently. It was strange, and in some ways, she enjoyed this new side of Klaus Mikaelson. In other ways, she wanted to go back to how things were before. Hating Klaus was all she had ever known for the better portion of her life, so she wasn't sure she could handle that steadfast aspect of her life getting disturbed.
She shivered slightly as he finished drawing her blood and patched up the small wound. The room was rather cold, making Katherine slightly annoyed that Klaus hadn't told her to put on a jacket when he saw her leave the room in just a lace tank top.
Katherine got up first and started walking upstairs, Klaus staying behind for a few seconds only to store her blood somewhere before he soon followed. As she entered the living room, a very familiar girl entered the front door, making Katherine's bored expression soon turn into something of excitement and curiosity.
"Bonnie? What are you doing here?"
"Klaus called me. I'm here to help," she said plainly as she dragged a suitcase and two bags after her.
"But, you've already tried. You're useless," Katherine said matter of factly, not meaning much harm but still earning an ugly look from Bonnie. "Sorry," she grimaced, realizing that might have been slightly offensive.
"Katerina. Bonnie may have failed on her own, but with my assistance, she can accomplish what I want her to do," Klaus informed as he also entered the living room and greeted their new guest. "I have a whole stack of my mother's grimoires, so you should get started with searching through them any minute now, little witch," he urged as he turned to Bonnie.
"Yeah yeah, just let me unpack my bags first."
A few days had passed since Bonnie's arrival at the compound, but there was no result about a cure yet. Whenever Katherine wasn't either hanging out with Kol, being subjected to vampire babysitting, or Klaus's blood bag, there wasn't much to do for her.
That particular evening she was just wandering around the place. Having finally managed to ditch her vampire bodyguards, she was free to go wherever she pleased. She found her way down the long hallway and into a room she knew to be Klaus's art studio, thinking she could sneak a glance at a few of his paintings. She had always known Klaus had been into art, particularly paint, but she had never viewed one of his works. Apart from perhaps the wall decor in his apartment.
She stepped inside and was surprised to find the man himself sitting in his usual chair, brush in hand as he worked on a painting.
"Do you know the courtesy of knocking, Katerina?" he asked, studying his canvas closely before placing a brushstroke in an area he figured needed more coloring.
"Sorry, I didn't think you'd be in here," she excused, still standing in the doorway of the room.
"And that makes sneaking into my room okay?" Klaus turned around and looked at her with raised brows and a smug look. "If you wanted to have a look, you could've just asked, you know."
This made Katherine feel at ease. Enough to move her from her place at the entrance over to his armchair, supporting herself on it lightly as she leaned forward to study the canvas.
"What are you painting?" she asked, genuinely curious. The painting, to her, looked like that of an elderly woman weeping, perhaps over the loss of her children that could be portrayed in the background noise of the painting. However, it could also look like something completely different, something not human, almost like a string of thoughts drawn as they were created, the brush of the hand simply moving on its own with the shared emotional connection of its artist. Truthfully, it was just like she had imagined art painted by Klaus Mikaelson would have looked like. Complicated, yet intriguing. Seeming one-faced at first, but actually having so, so many layers.
"Emotions." He simply said, making Katherine study it yet again with his perspective. She saw more now, when she envisioned it. The tears had blue, red, yellow, and green colors all within a few streams, and if she looked at the woman from a different perspective, it could resemble a man. Around the person were clouds, or what looked like it, covering black marks. To her, it represented inner turmoil, depression, madness, sadness, love... Beautiful.
However, her thoughts were quickly disturbed when she heard a loud, rather uncharacteristic sigh from Klaus. It wasn't an annoyed sigh, or the 'I'm frustrated with you' sigh, but rather, it seemed sad. Regretful. Like he wanted to express something to her but couldn't. Or chose not to.
"Why did you save my life that day?" he asked suddenly, making Katherine stop for a second.
"Your death would've killed Damon as well and I-"
"No, not that time. On the island a few months ago, when I was about to get staked, you saved me," he pointed out, facing the canvas rather than her, making it hard for Katherine to decipher his facial expressions and what he felt at that moment. Did he feel as awkward as Katherine felt? Or was she simply the one making the situation more significant than it had to be.
"I... It's difficult to explain it, but I suppose it didn't feel right. Letting you die such a simple and pathetic death after everything that has happened..."
Klaus nodded slowly at her response, seeming to take it all in. "I do understand you, Katerina. I felt the same way, when I saw you jump off the tower a week ago. An ending like that for you, it just didn't seem satisfying to me, in a way, not right. To you or to our story."
"Our story?" she asked, crossing her arms. "You mean the story of how you ruined me back when I was nothing but an innocent girl? Or of how naive I was believing your lies. When you told me you loved me like I loved you, but I wasn't more than a tool to you, to break that stupid curse?!"
"It wasn't all lies..." Klaus murmured, not offended or angry at her exclamation. It seemed like he finally understood. "I loved you a long time ago. In my own way."
Katherine blinked a few times to register if she had heard correctly. If this man called Klaus Mikaelson had just given her something resembling a confession. She couldn't find the right words, because honestly, she needed time to process the meaning behind what he had said. Or if there was any meaning at all.
"I..." she mumbled, turning to walk right back out of the room. "Have to go." She didn't even get out of the room, however, before she fell to her knees by a sudden pain in her chest. Her breathing was getting heavier, but it was not because of what Klaus had said to her. Instead, it was physical. Her heart felt as if it was being squeezed just tight enough not to burst and her throat was knitting up, she really could not breathe. "I... " she panted, barely managing to get out a whisper before she clutched to her heart in a frenzied panic. "Can't... breathe..." she choked before falling right to the ground, passing out blank.