"At seventeen, I started to starve myself
I thought that love was a kind of emptiness
And at least I understood then the hunger I felt
And I didn't have to call it loneliness"
Hunger, Florence + The Machine
As it turns out, there's a reason why Klaus didn't follow me out. And as it turns out, Kol is just as homicidal as I had been warned. Kol had come down as soon as I'd called him, and he had promptly snapped Klaus' neck because he wanted to get to me first to spite his brother.
I discovered this not because the Mikaelson brothers were particularly forthcoming, but because an enraged, fuming had raced out of the open balcony doors with a rumbling Kol! That sounded like thunder out of his lips.
Klaus had taken a moment to angrily gesture at me, not stopping his stride towards a now laughing Kol. "Go home, Elena," he growled. "The nurse isn't coming."
Offended, I barely stepped back before the two collided in a Godzilla-like fight. I mourned the weed that got thrown in the pool- a deliberate move on Klaus' end, I'm sure.
I left after a few seconds.
A couple hours later, my phone lit up in the darkness of my room where I had abandoned it to peacefully watch a movie. From Klaus. It said to come tomorrow.
AATBYJ Ch. 7
The next day rolls around, and since Klaus' passive aggressively angry text message didn't specify a time, I chose around noon.
It's only my luck that when the doors swing up, it's not my favorite Mikaelson. It's not even my second favorite- not that Klaus is my favorite in any way, but I would prefer him over Rebekah.
No, it's Kol.
"Gilbert," he muses, leaning against the doorframe. His sharp features soften into a deceptively teasing smirk. "Back for more narcotics?"
The huff of laughter that escapes me is accidental, unnatural as it stretches my lips and shows off my teeth. "I could take a lap in your pool for that."
Kol's smirk sharpens. "Thank my brother for that. But by all means, come in." He moves slightly to gesture for me to come through. I do fearlessly, even though I'm sure he can hear my heartbeat doing Simone Biles-worthy gymnastics in my ribcage.
"Where is Klaus?" I ask as I step into the center of the room as no hybrids have come out to chastise me for anything. Okay, not anything, for trying to smoke weed with his "homicidal" brother.
"Not here," Kol answers carelessly. He passes by now and throws himself onto an armchair, also carelessly throwing his legs over the arm of the chair. "Apparently, the town still has vervain in its water and he can't compel a nurse from the hospital to come, so he's out finding someone to draw your blood."
So much effort on his end. I glance at the front door, wondering if I should go home, but then Kol says, "That block sure does go through a lot of effort for this little ritual between you two."
"Ritual?" I repeat mockingly. "Is that what he calls it?"
"Klaus isn't a man of many words," Kol says. "It's just what I observed. So strange that he goes through so much effort to get you here, secure a nurse to safely draw your blood, and then feed you."
"The food part is all Elijah," I clarify. Elijah who hasn't called or texted since he told me the next time we'll be speaking will be face to face. Apparently, I have to wait a hundred years for that, but at least it will be in person. My bitterness at being ignored has me easily rolling my eyes. "It's for my health, so I'll keep giving blood."
"For you health?" Kol makes a mocking sound. "Do they not notice that the next needle to go through your arm is about to go through it?"
I freeze, my painless arm going to hover my aching inner elbow. The pain is a constant, and one that I don't express.
"I am curious," he continues casually with a too-sharp look in his dark eyes that have me locked in them. "Why is it that they don't just give you vampire blood to heal you? You'll be able to give buckets of blood in a day if they heal you."
I venture further into the room, more towards Kol and the artful arrangement of lush furniture. "Klaus once told...um, Stefan when Stefan tried to give me his blood that he doesn't want me to have vampire blood in case I decided to pull a Katherine and kill myself."
There's a pause, a moment of silence as Kol mulls over what I said. "Interesting."
I bring my lips together in an inaudible smack, agreeing. I gesture to the front door. "I'm, um, going to go. Have Klaus-"
"Want to watch a movie?"
AATBYJ Ch. 7
Klaus makes it back with a nurse nearly three hours later. Apparently, he'd had to go to the next town to get a certified, capable nurse and compel her. He arrived just in time for the first Kill Bill movie to end. I'd watched it years ago, but it was a first for Kol, who loved it and shamelessly compared his own kills to similar scenes. I would be freaked out if he hadn't added in a little "I don't do that anymore, but…" every once in a while.
I didn't have to get up for the nurse to prep her stuff. Klaus, still ticked off from yesterday, kept silent vigilance, watching the painful needle go into my arms and glancing at Kol as if his younger brother and I had concocted a scheme to get out of it.
Kol? He didn't move from beside me. He blew a whistling sound when I rolled up my sleeve to reveal my bruised elbow but didn't say anything. Once I was done, I rolled my sleeve back up, thanked Kol for the fun time, rolled my eyes at Klaus, and left. At least I had around three days before I had to get back here.
That's what I thought. But a text appeared on my phone the following day. It stated:
Stole your phone from Nik. He has you under Elena - Doppelganger. How many Elenas does he know?
Anyway. Want to finish the sequel to our movie?
It took me two hours to reply. Two hours of me pacing my entire house, taking a shower, and typing and retyping a message in my Notes app before my lonely ass replied:
He's in my contacts as "Asshole" with no name needed.
And….yes.
And so, I had a movie date with a Mikaelson, who invited me over, saying that Klaus would be gone for a few days.
We watched all the Kill Bills in one day. By the end of the night, he had claimed that he felt up for something other than silence and asked me to bring a different recommendation the next time, which was tomorrow as Klaus was still gone.
So here we are, four days days. Kol has relayed an entire history textbook's worth of his vampiric history and I...have told him an entire romance novel's worth of my woes. He knows all the dirty deets by now.
We're in the mansion. He's in sweatpants and I'm in comfortable shorts.
"Doesn't that guy look a lot like Alaric?" I pondered out loud with a mouthful of popcorn.
"Alaric," Kol repeated, lounging on the- well, lounge chair in a position that's identical to mine. We're sharing a giant mixing bowl full of homemade popcorn that Elijah taught me how to do a caramel version of as we were waiting for the nurse to arrive. "Alaric, as in your history teacher, vampire hunter, and that fucking bastard Salvatore's best friend?"
That fucking bastard Salvatore is Kol's, and mine, favourite nickname for Damon Salvatore. See, that's what I like about Kol. He's loyal, and he laughs at my jokes, and he can trash talk better than a mean girl, which is also a movie we both love.
"Yeah, exactly." We both tilt our heads at Warner Huntington II, Elle's snobby ex-boyfriend in Legally Blonde.
"It's like they're…"
"Identical," I finish Kol's trail of words.
"Gosh," Kol says, almost laughingly, those devilish eyes connecting to mine. "It's almost like there's a word for that, isn't there?"
"Stop." I groan, but Kol is laughing. I throw a popcorn at him, and he picks it off mid-air and plops it in his mouth.
"What's the matter, doppelganger?" he says. "Possessive of the word? You really shouldn't. You know you're the most special doppelganger out there. Not even Alaric can steal your title."
My head falls onto the headrest, and I say, "There's nothing special about me."
"Now I know you did not just say that, Elena."
I look at him helplessly, vulnerable, and he straightens.
"Elena, do you know who I am? Do you think I'd hang out with someone who's not special this much?"
"You're, like, the only vampire in town who hasn't been betrayed or killed by a doppelganger or… something associated with us," I say.
"You're forgetting that I grew up in the same village as Tatia," Kol says. "And Katherine's disappearing act scorns me because it caused you pain. The burden of the sacrifice should have fallen onto her neck, not yours."
"That's not fair either," I say. "In this specific scenario, Katherine's not at fault. The sacrifice is just… meh. Esther was wrong to do it to Klaus in the first place, and Klaus is wrong for pursuing it."
"We can continue with this unrelated line of thought and philosophies, but what I'd like to get back to is how I didn't know you had such low self-esteem issues."
I purse my lips because he hit the nail on the head with that one.
"You are special, Elena," Kol says, almost vehemently. "You only share a face with those girls. You're nothing like them."
I look back at him, wanting to cry. He rolls his eyes and smacks a kiss to my forehead.
I don't think I've ever updated as soon as this time! I know this is super short, but I have plans for the next ones, which include a nice sit down with Klaus and Elijah explaining the breakup.
Also, several people asked me about why Klaus doesn't just heal Elena, so I hope this answered that!
Thank you to everyone who commented, favorited, and followed An Act That Brought You Joy! I'm going through a hard time and I love writing this. The response is so uplifting, so thank you!
BTW, the title An Act That Brought You Joy is based on a Hozier song called "To Noise Making (Sing). It says, "Maybe it's the act of making noise that brought you joy."
Since I always listen to music while writing, I'm trying something where I added the song that inspired a particular scene.
