(1/2)
Chapter 41
Flashback:
Klaus's finger tapped incessantly against his folded arms as he watched Elijah shove clothing into a leather-bound chest.
"Must you leave alone, brother," Klaus asked once again, his anxiety growing with each passing second of Elijah preparing to abscond from their small village in the heart of Portugal to travel East.
There was rumor that Mikael was closing in on their current hiding spot but the family had gotten comfortable there. They had farmland and workers, a witch community that accepted them, and a werewolf community that feared them. They weren't ready to leave it just yet. So Elijah decided to go off on his own and create a ruckus in far-off countries to draw Mikael away from their current home. Klaus hadn't been without his brother in two hundred years and it made him nervous to even think about being without Elijah.
"Perhaps we should all go together," Klaus insisted. "Let's just move on again. Mikael is always going to find us. We should just cut our losses and move on again."
"Mikael is not going to find us," said Elijah as he shut the lid of his chest. "Because I'm not going to let him. I will compel strangers into thinking they are you. I will set fire to cities. Whatever I have to do to convince Mikael that we're far away from here. This is our home now. We haven't had a home in a long time and I'm not going to let Mikael drive us away from it."
"How long will you be gone," Klaus asked softly, ashamed of his need to have Elijah around. "You promised you would help me lift this curse our mother put on me."
"And I will, brother, I swear it. But right now, keeping Mikael away from you is more important. I will return as soon as I know that you are safe."
"How long with that take," Klaus grumbled. "You know...how I get when you're not around. I...I need you here lest I become...like before. In York."
Elijah remembered the night a few decades back when he woke to the terrified screams of townspeople crying through his window as Niklaus led a violent mob of newly-turned bloodthirsty vampires through the village. Elijah blamed himself for that night. He had just met Lady Emma and she had done much to take his attention away from Niklaus for months. He knew that if he had been paying more attention to Niklaus than Lady Emma, hundreds of people wouldn't have died that night.
Elijah turned kind eyes to his brother. He walked over to Klaus and placed his hands on the sides of his brother's sullen face. "I will be back before you start to miss me. You will be fine brother. Keep an eye on Kol and Rebekah while I'm away. Keep them from doing anything that would drive Mikael back here."
Niklaus pulled his face sullenly out of Elijah's hands and leaned against the doorframe. "Rebekah is hardly a problem. Kol, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about. He never heeds my warnings. He doesn't respect me as he does you." Staring straight across at the floorboards, Klaus muttered, "He still calls me 'The Bastard'."
Elijah brought his hands up to Klaus's shoulders and gave them a firm squeeze before saying, "You can do this, brother. I won't be away long, I promise. And I will talk to Kol about calling you that when I return. In the meantime, if our brother starts any mischief, you know how to handle him."
Klaus scoffed. Whenever he wanted to create a ruckus, he knew he could trust Kol to be his willing sidekick but even Klaus had his limits on mischief and too much of it would make him annoyed. Kol had absolutely no limit to his mischief and could carry on for years if no one was around to stop him. Luckily Elijah was always there to stop him with his own unique method of chastisement, a method Klaus could barely stand to witness let alone administer.
"I certainly hope you don't expect me to take him over my knee as you do," Klaus mocked.
"If he deserves it."
A feeling of uneasiness made Klaus's skin crawl. "I can't...hit him, brother. He already thinks of me as a monster. What if he...what if he starts to hate me just as he does Mikael? Or worse, as I do."
"If he does not hate me, Niklaus, he will not hate you."
"We are different, you and I," Klaus thundered. "You are Elijah - our trusted, noble brother who would sooner sacrifice himself that bring harm to his siblings. I am the Bastard! The cursed Hybrid! There are entire civilizations that hate me, why wouldn't my own brother."
"Because we are a family, Niklaus, and we made an agreement to stand by each other always and forever. He will be angry with you after, as any reasonable person in his position would be, but he will not hate you." Seeing the uncertainty still in Klaus's eyes, Elijah said, "Don't fret, brother. You don't have to do anything. Kol will be on his best behavior while I am away. If not, I will deal with him on my return. Until then, wait for my letters. I won't be able to stay in one place long enough for you to write me but I will try to write you every chance I can and as soon as I'm sure Mikael is following my trail, I will compel someone to continue it under the guise of Klaus Mikaelson." Placing his hand gently against Klaus's face, Elijah said, "I won't be gone long, brother. Less than a year. I promise."
End Flashback
Freya's slippers shuffled slowly down the hall. She walked at pace, her weak eyes glued intently at the grimoire in her hands. The night had dragged on and with each passing hour, her eyes grew heavier. She decided to go down to the kitchen and start a pot of coffee before her eyelids won the battle against her will to stay open.
Just as she entered the kitchen, she saw a movement in her peripheral vision. She looked up to see Klaus sitting at the bar with his back to the door, a glass mug in his hand. The fragrance of freshly brewed coffee filled the air.
Klaus knew who had entered the kitchen without turning around. He sensed his sister coming down the hall. He wanted to leave before she got there but he couldn't seem to find the strength to move.
"Would you mind picking up those blasted slippers as you walked," he bit. "You'll wake Elijah."
Freya wasn't surprised by Klaus's apparent vexation to her appearance. After what she'd done, she wouldn't be surprised if he hated her for years. Still, she couldn't help but be sympathetic to his pain. If even half of what everyone had told her about Mikael were true, he had every reason to feel angry, hurt, and betrayed by his own sister.
"He should probably be here," she said gravely as Klaus took a sip from his mug. "He always knows how to help when you have a nightmare."
Klaus wanted to slam the mug down on the counter but he was afraid any noise would wake their brother.
"I didn't have a nightmare," he corrected her. "I haven't been to sleep."
"You haven't been to sleep," Freya asked with surprise as if she herself hadn't been up for more than twenty-four hours herself. Assuming she knew why Klaus was forcing himself to stay awake, Freya said, "You have nothing to be afraid of, brother. I haven't ended the tracking spell I have on Mikael and I'm not going to so I'll know exactly where he is at all times. Right now he's in Reykjavik, over five thousand miles away from us."
"He'd be further if you hadn't brought him back."
Freya sighed and closed the book in her hands. She hadn't planned to be in the kitchen longer than it took to get a cup of coffee but she knew she would have to face Klaus's anger eventually.
"I'm sorry, Niklaus," she muttered. "I know that he was awful to you...but you must see things from my point of view. I was raised by Dahlia but she never loved me. She treated me like nothing more than a rechargeable power source for her magic. And she never ceased to remind me how unloved I was by her...and Esther. I hated Esther so much for giving me away. For...for not fighting for me. For ripping me out of the arms of my little brother. When I cried myself to sleep at night, I wasn't praying that she would come save me. I was praying...for my papa. The Viking warrior who would fight all of Vahalla for me. Then a thousand years later I find out that he thought I was dead and had he known about Esther's betrayal, he would've come for me."
Heaving a big breath of air through his nose, Klaus quipped, "And that would've made everything all better, wouldn't it. If Mikael had just focused all of the hate and rage he's been doling out to his children for a thousand years on Dahlia, the surreptitious source of his most devastating loss, he would have been a much better father. Perhaps he would've lost the strength to strike his children."
Freya slid the grimoire on the counter beside Niklaus's mug as she moved beside him. "Nik, I want him to suffer...so badly for what he did to you. I'm sorry that I brought him back. It's just...he's been the hero in my mind for so long, it was hard for me to see him as anything else. I see now that I was wrong. He's not going to change."
"Could've saved you some time had you just asked me," Klaus muttered, taking another sip of coffee.
Freya reached her hand out to touch Klaus's and he immediately pulled it away, the scowl on his face was a clear enough sign of how he felt about any attempt of comfort from her at the moment.
"I'm going to get Elijah," she mumbled. "You don't need to be alone after a nightmare."
"I didn't have a bloody nightmare," Klaus bit.
"Then why are you still awake," she demanded. "Everyone else is asleep. I'm only awake because I can't sleep until Finn is back to normal. So, what's your excuse?"
Klaus sat quietly staring at his coffee mug, contemplating whether or not he should tell her the truth about why he was refusing to go to sleep. He knew with more certainty than he'd had in a long time that if he went to sleep that night, his dreams would be plagued with visions of Mikael torturing him and killing his family over and over until he went insane with fear and woke in a bone-chillingly cold sweat. He was ashamed of himself for being afraid, and he hated Freya for being the person to put that fear in him.
"I'm waiting up for Kol," Klaus finally spoke.
Freya was startled by Klaus's response. She had peeked on Kol on her way to the kitchen. There was a person shaped lump in the middle of his bed covered by his blankets. It was normal for Kol to sleep with his blankets pulled above his head but Freya assumed that he was so upset about being separated from Davina that he wanted to mope under her covers for a while and eventually fell asleep.
"What are you talking about," she questioned. "Kol's in his room. I just saw him."
Klaus smirked, a bit amused by his sister's gullibleness. She was still naive to Kol's surplus of childish antics. "What you saw was three pillows lined under a blanket," Klaus informed her. "Kol snuck out when Davina left with the others."
Freya shook her head in disappointment. "Maybe you should just...forgive him. After all, he was only keeping Mikael's resurrection a secret because I asked him to."
"He was keeping your secret because he wanted to bring Davina back and he was afraid if we knew about your plan to bring back Mikael, we'd put a stop to all of it." Klaus slammed his mug on the counter, irritated by the very idea that Freya and Kol would think him so heartless that he wouldn't allow Freya to bring back the girl his brother and son loved just because Freya had intentions to bring back Mikael with that same spell.
"Okay, so maybe he acted out of fear," Freya continued trying to defend her brother. "But it still wasn't betrayal. I'm the only one who should be punished here."
"I agree you should," Klaus grunted. "Especially since you put my son and daughter in danger by bringing that maniac back. You should've most certainly been punished and your punishment should've been worse than any of theirs."
Freya stared down at the counter, the shame she felt made her eyes heavier. Her hand crept across the counter once more attempting to take Klaus's hand and again he pulled away from her. This time he stood up and walked around the aisle just so he wouldn't have to regularly withdraw from his sister's touch.
"The fact that my brother can't even look at me," Freya muttered, watching with a heavy heart as Klaus's vision stared pointedly away from her. "Is punishment enough. I'm truly sorry, Niklaus. Please believe that I sincerely never meant to hurt you. I thought...that I could make our family whole. I thought that I could turn Mikael back to the father that I loved. That...that he would feel guilty for what he did to you and he'd spend the rest of eternity trying to make things right."
Klaus huffed but continued looking away from her. He didn't want to talk about Mikael right now. The sun was beginning to rise and he was fighting exhaustion.
"Don't you have anything better to do than bother me? Perhaps you should go check on Finn. God forbid something go wrong with him while you're down here...consoling me."
Freya sighed but didn't press the issue anymore. Niklaus was still angry. She decided to give him some time to be angry and try to talk to him again later.
As Freya left the kitchen, Klaus took his seat back on his stool and took a sip from his coffee mug. His face blanched as the cold, bitter coffee touched his tongue. He went to pour it out and refill the cup when he heard the door to the courtyard ease open. He heard the soft tap of feet moving across the courtyard and waited until they were at the stairway to speed out of the kitchen.
"It's about time you all made it home." Klaus's cold voice sent a chill down the spines of the two young vampires. "I was beginning to worry I would have to go out and find you."
Marcel stood frozen at the bottom of the staircase, Rebekah the only one of them brave enough to face her brother.
"Of course we were coming back," she stated. "What? Did you think Marcel would be dumb enough to try to hide out across the river knowing how terrible you can be about showing respect for someone's privacy?"
Klaus smirked knowingly and glanced guiltily away from Rebekah. "Let's not rehash old memories," he tutted. "Not while the present looms ever ahead. Marcel,"
At the snap of his name, Marcel slowly turned to face Niklaus. His eyes were steady in an attempt to keep his facade of nonchalance.
"How is Davina," Klaus asked truly concerned.
Marcel wasn't expecting Klaus to ask about Davina and his cool disposition was shaken. "Uh...fine," he stumbled. "She was starving on the way to Josh's place and made us stop for burgers. I think she ate more tonight than she ate in her entire life."
Marcel smirked as he remembered Davina fighting sleep to stay up with them through the night despite being exhausted from her resurrection. He thought that she was just excited to be back, excited to be with her family again, but that was only partly true.
Davina knew that Marcel couldn't know the whole truth. It would devastate him if he did. The truth was that she was afraid that if she fell asleep, she'd wake up and it would have all just been a dream. They'd all disappeared again and she'd be trapped in the dark void of nothingness all dead supernatural beings were condemned to after the fall of the Otherside. Davina couldn't remember anything about her time in the Void but she could remember every feeling she had there like a phantom pain incessantly pecking at her soul.
It felt like drowning on dry land.
The cold, clammy hand of the Void dragging her through the empty void of endless nothingness.
It was impossible to tell how much time was passing in the Void and the dead silence was dense enough to drive a person insane.
An endless abyss of abject loneliness.
Davina refused to tell anyone of what she dealt with in death because she didn't want them to worry. She was fine now, she was with the people that loved her. Still, she fought sleep that night until she couldn't fight it anymore.
The pride in Marcel's eyes as he talked about Davina brought joy to Klaus. Moving closer to Marcel, he placed his hand gently on the nape of his neck. "I am happy that you have her back. I cannot promise that Davina and I will ever get along the way you would like, I feel that my past with her is too intense to be forgiven by anyone who isn't a Mikaelson." Marcel's eyebrows formed a deep frown at Klaus's words so Klaus quickly added, "But, I can promise that I will never let any harm befall her ever again. I will protect her as if she were your own."
"She is mine," Marcel stated firmly. "In the same way that I am your son. There can be no wiggle room, Klaus. Do you understand? It's not enough for you to promise to protect her, the rest of your family must promise to protect her as a Mikaelson as well. Sacrificing her to save another Mikaelson can never be an option again." Marcel's eyes held a sudden coldness in them. "She matters, Klaus. Just like you'd do anything to protect me, I'll do anything to protect her. Even from your family."
Klaus smirked at Marcel's subtle threat. "Understood," he agreed. Then giving Marcel a firm tap on the hip with the back of his hands, Klaus said, "Now get some rest. I'll see to it that you aren't disturbed before noon."
Marcel turned to go upstairs and said, "Don't bother. I'll be down for breakfast. I told Davina I'll be there when she wakes up again so I don't plan on staying here long. Just long enough to shower and change."
"Marcel," Klaus's stern voice caused Marcel to pause at the bottom step but he didn't turn around. He could feel Klaus's eyes glaring at him without having to see it. "Need I remind you, you and I have unfinished business."
Marcel let out an audible sigh. "Then let's get it over with," he grunted. "Just...make it quick."
Klaus's jaw tensed in annoyance at Marcel's attempt to guide the terms of his own punishment but he was sympathetic to Marcel's desire to be with Davina. If he'd lost either of his children for twelve years, nothing would be able to keep him from them upon their return.
"Go to your room," Klaus grunted. "I'll be up in a while." Remembering that he had more pressing matters to undertake with his still missing brother, he asked, "Was Kol with you in Algiers?"
Rebekah sighed. She warned Kol not to come with them to Algiers but he insisted that Klaus would never find out he snuck out but evidently he was wrong. When they made it back to the Compound, Kol snuck back into his room through the window in order to avoid running into either of their older brothers.
"I guess you found the pillows," she asked.
Klaus scoffed. "Has that trick ever worked on me?"
With a smirk, Rebekah said, "Not in a thousand years." Then, focusing her hearing further into the Compound, she heard the unmistakable sound of Kol's bedroom window slamming shut. Rebekah's heart went out to her brother but she wanted him punished as much as she wanted Mikael back dead. Kol's lies put their family in danger and they could have cost Marcel his life had Mikael not left town. She knew that her brother deserved whatever punishment Klaus gave him. But that didn't mean she couldn't still sympathize with him.
"Sounds like he just made it back," Rebekah said calmly taking Marcel's hand and starting back upstairs.
Klaus sped past the other two vampires up to Kol's bedroom. He slowly pushed the door open to see Kol standing shirtless in the middle of the room struggling to pull his feet out of his boots without untying them so he could quickly get into bed before anyone heard him. He was horrified to see he'd failed.
"I certainly hope you had fun on your little escapade across the river," Klaus growled as he entered. "Because you won't be seeing outside these walls again for an absurdly long time."
Kol stood up straight and stared nervously away from his brother.
"What was your plan exactly," Klaus continued. "To sneak out and back into bed without me noticing?"
In a low mutter, Kol answered, "I was hoping you lot would be too distracted by the Finn issue to notice me gone. Since you did, I'm guessing Freya was unsuccessful in reviving our poor brother. Is he dead again?"
"Not exactly," Klaus smirked. "Freya performed the de-aging spell she performed on Marcel but it turns out Hope got a bit more creative with the 'time-freezing' spell and things are a little...uncertain at the moment. For him, anyway. Your future is quite certain."
As Klaus walked forward again, Kol took a stumble backward. "N-now wait a second, brother," Kol stammered. "Y-you said that I could only spend an hour with Davina. You didn't say where that hour had to be spent."
"You've been gone for more than an hour," Klaus bellowed. "Where else have you been if not with the love of your heart?"
"Y-you have no proof that I did spend it with her," Kol insisted, his fingers dancing nervously against his thumbs. "I...I've just been wandering the city...trying to relax my mind after the end of one of the longest days of my life."
Klaus went slack-jawed at his brother's continued lying. He was about to be punished for lying and yet he couldn't seem to stop. "Do you really expect me to believe that you spent all of this time away from the Compound not with Davina?"
Kol stayed silent. He knew Klaus knew he was lying but he couldn't help himself. After a thousand years of trying to save himself from the dagger, lying had become second nature to him.
"Alright," Klaus turned to the door. "I'll just go ask Marcel. Or better yet, I'll just compel him to tell me the truth of whether you were with them in Algiers or-"
"I was there, alright," Kol blurted. "No need to go ask your favorite, Little Marcellus. I admit it. I was there. But how could you expect me not to, brother? I've been without the girl I love for twelve years and now that she's back, now that I can finally hold her in my arms, you expect me to be fine with spending a week without her."
"You have a lifetime to spend with her," Klaus barked back. "A week won't kill either of you. It's called self-restraint. A concept you will learn intimately in the MONTH you spend away from her!"
"A month? You can't be serious, Klaus!"
"I am quite serious, brother. And the more you disobey me, the more that time will extend. Keep it up and the next time you get to see Davina, you'll be checking her into her first retirement home."
Kol's heart sank at the thought of not seeing Davina for a month. He didn't think he would be able to go the next day without seeing her, let alone a month.
"I won't do it," he mumbled under his breath, and then louder for Klaus to hear, he said, "I'll run away to her. We'll run away together. We'll go to Paris or Spain. Somewhere across the pond so I know you won't follow."
"You...you'd leave our family," Klaus asked, his voice tense with disbelief. "For her."
Tears began to weld in Kol's eyes. He didn't want to leave his family but his time with Davina was limited and he wanted to spend every second he could with her. His family was immortal. He could come back in sixty years and he would be just as welcomed as if he were only gone a week.
"I don't want to, Nik, but you're not giving me much of a choice. I love her. I do. I can't spend a month away from her, I just can't. Please understand, brother."
The look of shock and disgust evident on Klaus's face told Kol that his brother had no desire to understand his dilemma and he wasn't going to try to.
Klaus was furious at the news that Davina was now someone with the power to tear his family apart. He thought about all of the lovers his siblings had over the years that he'd killed to guarantee their love for them didn't grow to this extent - the extent to which his siblings would choose to be with their lovers over him, to love someone more than they loved him, to leave him alone and unloved.
Hayley once had this power over him with Elijah but Klaus's jealousy of her ended the day Hayley saved their family from death and agreed to become a Mikaelson. She was no longer a stranger with the power to tear their family apart because she was their family. Davina, on the other hand, was just a girl Kol and Marcel loved. A girl with her own power and free will, a girl whose actions were outside of his control. He began to wonder, what if the day came where Davina wanted to leave New Orleans. Would Kol leave with her?
He could feel the cold claw of loneliness scratching at the surface of his skin from Kol's proclamation alone. He felt the immediate desire to get rid of Davina once and for good but in the same instant, he realized he couldn't.
Marcel was right. Davina was not disposable. Killing her once in 'necessity' nearly tore his family apart. To do so in anger, in jealousy, would destroy them. The heavy brick of helplessness rested against his chest, a feeling that he felt very rarely in his life. A feeling that he hated more than any other. For the first time, there was nothing he could do to get rid of the threat to their family. But he refused to be powerless.
In a heavy growl, Klaus said, "You're not going anywhere and neither is Davina. So long as having that girl around brings Marcel happiness, I'm not going to let you or anyone else take her away. I don't care about whatever fleeting affection you think you have for her."
"I love her!"
"Do you really, brother," Klaus said with sudden mockery, attempting to distance himself from his feelings about the situation by making it a joke. "Or do you just love the idea of her. Twelve years apart can certainly warp a person's memory of a person they once felt affection for. If I recall, Davina was a bit stubborn and over-zealous. Certainly more of a headache than a true love, don't you think?"
"I know what I feel for her Klaus. I felt it for twelve years and it all came back ten-fold when I saw her tonight. She is the only girl I ever felt this way about, Nik. Nothing you say will change that."
"Whatever you say, brother," Klaus scoffed. "The fact remains she isn't going anywhere.
He had always hated Klaus for his obstinance. His hybrid brother was never as understanding as Elijah when it came to his crimes and he'd always hated how cruel his wicked brother could be.
Flashback:
Kol sat sulking in his bedroom, a servant standing by his bedside with a long slash across her wrist as she bled out onto the floor, compelled not to move. The bodies of dozens of other servants laid dead on his floor. Elijah had been gone from their estate for eight months and in that time Kol had caused more havoc that Klaus could bare. He'd burned down a neighboring village, compelled the son of a Lord to eat his horse alive until it killed him, and incited a war between two werewolf packs that brought both packs to the brink of extinction. Klaus didn't know what else to do with his brother other than find a witch to put a barrier spell around his room that kept Kol trapped inside until Elijah could return and handle their brother as only Elijah could.
The prospect of being trapped in his bedroom like a petulant child until his big brother came back home to punish him enraged Kol. For days he was uncontrollable, threatening every servant that passed his door with death lest they brought Klaus back to him but Klaus always refused. It wasn't until he began to realize the sudden drop in servants around the Estate that Klaus began to grow concerned about his brother's activities and finally dragged himself up to Kol's bedroom.
Klaus was stunned at the sight of dead bodies scattered across Kol's floor. The sight of death and the strong scent of blood wafting around the room reminded him of his last bloody-bender. His fangs extracted automatically and a ravenous thirst befell him but he restrained himself from bursting into the room and feeding from the still bleeding servant girl.
"There you are," Kol growled, jumping up from the chair in the corner of his room and stomping over to Klaus. "Let me out of here, Klaus! Tell your witch to take this spell down or I will kill every servant we have."
"I suppose I could just seal off this hall," Klaus responded calmly, forcing himself to ignore the blood constantly pouring onto the floor. "Then you won't have any more servants to torture and kill."
"This is not fair, Klaus," Kol bellowed, his foot slamming down on the hardwood floor. "You kill people all the time but because I convince the spoiled wretch of a Lord to eat his own horse, suddenly I'm the out of control one of our family."
"Because you are out of control," Klaus yelled. "Only Elijah has the means to bring you in tow so you will stay in here until he returns. Your thoughtless antics will drive Mikael back towards us and all of the effort Elijah is putting in to keep our father away will be for nothing."
"In Elijah's last correspondence, he said that Mikael had finally taken his scent and was crossing to the East. That means he's far enough away for us to have some fun."
"You are becoming...a brute." Klaus's voice tinged with heartache. "You are letting the bloodlust turn you into something other than the little brother I once knew."
"Me a brute? You wipe out entire kingdom so in your rage. I only seek the fun of a few, unexceptional deaths."
"You seek mayhem," Klaus shouted. "I bring destruction only to those who would seek to harm our family. To strike fear into the hearts of anyone who dares raise their voice in a sign of protest against the Mikaelsons so that our enemies may never gain the courage to take up arms against us. You seek only entertainment from the deaths of innocents."
"I can do what I want, Niklaus! I am just as immortal and powerful as you! You can't force me to do what you want me to do." Suddenly Kol sped over to the candle sitting by his end table and held it up to the sheer curtains behind it. "Release me or I will turn this entire estate to ashes."
Klaus glared at Kol, his lips pursed in anger. Kol knew he had him then. Klaus didn't put it past Kol to burn their home to the ground because he'd done it before. Threatening to set a fire was his brother's go-to move ever since they realized that their family couldn't die in a fire but because everyone else could, Elijah would always be the one to step in and 'convince' Kol to calm down. Klaus hated that Elijah wasn't around to take care of their brother then so now he had to step up.
A silver dagger pressed against his waist hidden by his coat, already coated in white oak ash. His first instinct was to use it to put his brother down and end all of his annoyance at once but then he remembered Elijah's plea. Kol was impulsive but he loved his siblings and trusted them more than he did anyone. No matter how much Klaus doubted it, he knew he had to trust his brother to continue to love him even after he did what he knew he had to do.
Klaus sped into Kol's bedroom and grabbed the candle from his hand, extinguishing it with one finger and throwing it back on the table. Then, before either of them knew what was happening, he grabbed Kol's arm and spun him around. Klaus's hand came down harshly against Kol's backside. The shock of Klaus spanking him silenced Kol until he smacked the same spot for a third time and ignited a flame on Kol's behind. The younger brother let out a small squeak and Kalus finally stopped.
When Kol turned back to face Niklaus, he had his hands pressed against his behind, rubbing away the pain and hoping to protect himself from anymore spanks.
Kol was shocked by Klaus's actions. Sure, his brother had hit him before, more so now that they were vampires than when they were kids, but never had Niklaus hit him like this. Like Elijah. When Elijah spanked him, Kol knew it was because he'd done something wrong and Elijah was trying to correct his behavior but Klaus...Klaus was not Elijah. Kol doubted whether his half-brother even liked him most of the time, let alone cared about correcting his behavior.
Tears began to shimmer in his eyes but he fought against them. Elijah was the only person he felt comfortable crying in front of and even that comfort took years to cultivate. He scrunched his face, forcing himself to keep his tears at bay as he stared Klaus in the eyes.
Klaus's pulse had been racing from the moment he released Kol. He waited for his brother to say something, anything, to ensure him that he wasn't angry. That he didn't hate Klaus like Klaus feared he would but Kol didn't say anything but when Klaus saw his brother's face scrunched into an unmistakable scowl, he felt he knew what Kol was thinking. He hated him. Klaus had overextended his jurisdiction and punished Kol in a way that only Elijah had the authority to do and humiliated his brother and now he was sure Kol hated him.
He couldn't bare the thought. He loved his siblings so much though he knew that he himself was no one deserving of love himself. He was lucky to have his siblings affection but every day he feared that luck would run out and now as Kol stood glaring at him, he thought that moment had come for his youngest brother. The thought of Kol hating him even for a moment made him panic.
Kol's eyes bulged when he saw the dagger coming from behind Klaus's jacket and his tears finally escaped but it was too late. Klaus shoved the dagger into Kol's chest without a second thought and stared stone-faced as the life felt Kol's body. He was too proud to allow Kol to see the pain he felt but as soon as Kol's limp body fell into his arms, he allowed his tears to fall.
End Flashback
"I'm sorry, Nik," Kol finally mumbled. "I'm sorry that I disobeyed you and left with Davina but, please...please don't keep us apart for a month. You can let Elijah thrash me every day for a month if you want, just please don't do this."
"As just as that sounds," Klaus smirked. "Elijah would never agree to it. Besides, I'm the one in charge of punishing you for this."
Those words made Kol seize in fear. Klaus 'punishing' him almost always ended with the dagger. Even though Klaus promised not to use the dagger on him anymore, Kol refused to believe him as the dagger had always been Klaus's chosen form of punishment for his siblings. For a moment he considered trying to speed past Klaus and go to Elijah for refuge but he knew his hybrid brother was faster and he feared even the thought of crossing him any more than he already had.
"Wh-what are you going to do to me," Kol asked though he feared he already knew the answer.
"You're a Mikaelson," Klaus said as he walked over to Kol's bed and sat down, surprising Kol with his nonchalance. "You know what is about to happen."
Klaus beckoned Kol over with one finger but Kol refused to move. He didn't want to put himself in such a vulnerable position with Klaus. If he was face down over his brother's knee, he'd never see the dagger coming.
"P-please, Klaus," Kol stuttered. "I-I'm sorry that I lied to you. I feel guilty about it enough as it were. And I mean I actually feel GUILT. Me. I hardly ever feel guilty for anything but I do for...for lying to you then. The first time you took me at my word and I lied. My stomach's been in knots ever since."
"Yes, well, this lesson should reinforce that feeling so that it does not happen again."
"C'mon, brother. I apologized. Doesn't that count for anything? Can't we just let bygones be, and all that?"
"Bygones," Klaus repeated heatedly. "Your lies put Marcel in danger. Had Joshua not been so easily manipulated...who knows what would have happened to him. You won't be so easily forgiven for this, Kol. No. Punishment is in order. Now stop trying to weasel your way out of this and get over here."
When Kol didn't move to come to him, Klaus sped over to him and dragged his brother back over to the bed. Kol fought weakly against Klaus, knowing any resistance would be futile against Klaus's hybrid strength.
Klaus pulled Kol over his lap as he sat down on the bed. As Kol struggled to stand back up, Klaus placed his hand on his brother's back and held him down before easing Kol's pants from his waist with his other hand. The temperate bedroom air hit Kol's exposed behind, so did Klaus's hand. Kol's hands knotted tightly in his bed sheets as Klaus rained down smack after smack. The Hybrid held a steady pace yet the strength he held behind every smack grew sharper with every passing one. Kol sucked his lip between his teeth and bit down on it, forcing himself to keep quiet. He hadn't begged for his brothers to stop spanking him since the first time he found himself over Elijah's knee. He was so humiliated afterward that he'd sworn to himself that he'd never do it again and he hadn't broken that promise in a thousand years. He took every lick they gave him in silence, letting out only his tears and the occasional tenacious sob.
Klaus knew Kol was not going to beg for a swift end to his punishment. He never did. But on the rare occasion Klaus had Kol over his knee, he made it his mission to try to get Kol to break and so when he felt Kol tensing, refusing to give into the pain, he decided to put a bit of extra strength behind each lick.
"If you ever do anything to put Marcel's life in danger again," Klaus barked as his hand came down even harder. "You will never know a pain-free day for the rest of eternity."
Thinking about what all Mikael would have done to Marcel had he been misfortunate enough to run into him seemed to send Kalus into a rage. He could see Marcel's bloody face before his eyes. He could hear his screams, feel his pain. He imagined the man that made his human life hell on earth taking his time to hurt Marcel in new, torturous ways before ending him in as painful a way as Mikael could think of. All of his fear blinded him to his own strength and he didn't realize the force to which he was beating Kol with until horrible, gut-wrenching screams tore him from his imagination back to reality.
Kol's behind was painted frightful shades of dark purple and red. Klaus knew that at some point Kol must have tried to stop the beating by blocking his behind from Klaus's onslaught because Klaus had both of Kol's arms twisted firmly up his back with enough strength to nearly rip his shoulders from their sockets.
"Niklaus!"
The shout of his name from the doorway caused Klaus to release Kol and the young vampire's body fell limply to the floor, sobs wrecking havoc through his chest.
Elijah and Rebekah stood in the bedroom doorway, their eyes wide in disbelief of what they were witnessing. Seeing Kol lying on the floor with his arms covering his shameful tears, Rebekah sped over to him, pulling Kol into her tight hold as tears of her own began to weld in her eyes.
"What did you do to him," she asked Niklaus, unable to even look at him as she did.
Klaus sat with his mouth agape, unsure of what he'd done himself. Never had he lost control while punishing his brother. Not like that. Even when they fought he was always sure to hold back on his siblings but seeing Kol now, he wasn't sure if he'd held back any strength at all.
"Niklaus," Elijah muttered as he walked into the room, his eyes fixed on Kol still crying in Rebekah's arms. "What did you do?"
Elijah repeating Rebekah's question did not help Niklaus think of an answer any quicker.
"I...I didn't mean to," Klaus finally stuttered. "I...I wasn't...trying to...I didn't mean to..." He suddenly couldn't sit down any longer but as soon as he jumped to his feet, Kol's heavy sobs restored to their original vigor.
"I'm sorry," Kol screamed, burying his face against Rebekah's neck and squeezing her tighter in his arms as if he were afraid Klaus was going to rip her away from him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He couldn't stop repeating those words. Klaus had beaten him mercilessly and now Kol was sure the dagger was to come. "I'm sorry. Please...don't... I won't lie again, I swear it. P-please, stop. 'Lijah, don't let him get me. Please, 'Lijah, please. I'm sorry."
As Elijah moved past Klaus to their sobbing brother, he uttered, "Go. We've got this."
Klaus's feet were cemented to the floor. "Elijah," he whispered softly. "You have to believe me. I didn't mean to do this to him."
"Go, Niklaus," Elijah repeated firmer.
Looking back at Klaus, Elijah's cold heart began to melt at the sight of trapped tears at the corners of Klaus's eyes. He believed Klaus when he said he didn't mean to hurt Kol the way he did but the damage had been done and now their youngest brother was sobbing in in their sister's arms as he'd done so many times before when they were children.
"Go," Elijah muttered softer. "He doesn't need you here right now."
Knowing that Elijah was right, Klaus left the room, shutting the door behind him so he wouldn't have to hear Kol's pleas for forgiveness anymore but even through the thick wooden door he could still hear it. He hurried down the hall to get as far away from the room as possible but as he passed by Marcel's bedroom, Marcel came out.
"How's Kol" Marcel asked condescendingly. With a slight laugh, he continued, "Rebekah and I heard him crying a little while ago and she ran out of here like she was going to save him from a demon. I told her she was overreacting. She freaked out when he started begging. Said something about Kol never begging. Pssh, like he's Kol's ever been anything but dramatic."
"He was...begging," Klaus muttered, his eyebrows narrowing into an arch.
Klaus's apparent shock confused Marcel. "Y-yeah. We could hear it through the closed door even without vamp hearing. But don't worry, I think Hope's room too far down to have heard anything if that's what you're looking so worried about."
Klaus was speechless. Kol was known for saying whatever he needed to say to get out of trouble, whether it was ingenuine pleas or half-hearted apologies, but once he was over his brothers' knees, he'd always refused to give them the satisfaction of repentance no matter what. Even if apologizing meant receiving a shorter spanking, he refused.
But Klaus hadn't heard Kol say anything when he was beating him. His fear of Mikael returning to hurt his family had somehow made him block out everything. He couldn't help but wonder how long it took for Kol to start pleading for him to stop, at what point did it become too much for him to take? How long was he begging for?
As Klaus began to walk away, Marcel called, "Wait. Aren't we going to...y'know, get this over with?"
Klaus's stomach jumped to his throat as he pictured Marcel lying on his lap in the same position as Kol. He'd sooner tear the skin from his own body before he hurt Marcel like that and if he couldn't stop himself from hurting Kol, he refused to trust himself to not hurt Marcel.
"N-no," Klaus muttered. "I...can't. Go...see Davina. I need time to myself...to think."
As Klaus took another shaky step forward, Marcel noticed the strain of his movement, as if he were about to faint with every step.
"Klaus," Marcel's calm voice stilled his father once again. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Klaus answered immediately though his stressed tone did not convey 'fine'ness. "I just need a moment alone. Do me a favor? Take Hope with you. I don't want her around the Compound today. There's...a lot going on."
Marcel knew Klaus was lying about being fine but he didn't want to pressure him to talk about it anymore. He knew that he would find out the truth from Rebekah eventually so if Klaus wanted to pretend that everything was alright now, he would let him.
"Yeah," Marcel agreed. "Sure. Just...get some rest, okay. You look exhausted."
Klaus began his slow stroll down the hall to his studio. "I'm fine."
