Elena let out a sigh as she saw Bonnie leave the Grill. It had been a long day, Bonnie kept having recurring dreams and waking up in the forest clearing, while Caroline was heartbroken. Tyler had decided to try and break his sire bond by turning with the help of her dad but till then she and Tyler couldn't see each other, not after what had happened on her birthday.
She felt the hair on her neck raise as she felt a presence. She had a good idea who it was, but she hoped it wasn't true. She finished her drink quickly and moved to leave when he slid into the seat across from her.
Speak of the devil.
"What do you want?" She asked with hostility and he gave her charming smirk in return.
"Just wanted to check on my favourite doppelgänger. Make sure you're still well."
"I am, you make sure nothing happens to me while threatening all my friends." She said scathingly, the last few days events still at the forefront of her mind.
"Oh come now, love. I helped you heal your friend, I thought bygones would be bygones." He said as he sat back, comfortably. Great.
"You made her boyfriend give her a fatal bite, on her birthday."
There was a beat of silence. Then.
"I'm still trying to understand why that means anything, I healed her didn't I?" She sighed, there was no point trying to argue with his logic
"I guess it doesn't. What are you doing here?" She asked frowning at him. He was never the kind to do anything without motives, and she wondered what motive he had this time.
"Well, your one pony town only had one place for socialising, if it can be called that." He looked around the place as if it was beneath him.
"So socialise. With other people." She said with a soft sigh. As much as she wanted to be angry, to put up a wall around herself, she was also tired and exhausted. "As for the town, you can leave if you like."
"You know I can't do that. Not without my doppelgänger."
She blinked not wanting to get riled up , the last thing she needed was to get into a fight with him over this.
"Fine then stop complaining."
"You would be complaining too, if you had been anywhere."
"I've been to places." She said defending herself, receiving nothing but a disbelieving look in return. "I have!"
"Alright, I'll humour you, where have you been?"
"I...Georgia." It slipped out, her face turning red in embarrassment as he laughed at her, and she couldn't help but feel insulted.
"I'm sorry." He said when he was done, showing her his hands in an attempt to make peace. "I didn't mean to laugh love. There's just so much more for you to see out there."
"And let me guess, this is the part where you tell me you can take me to exotic locations all over the world-"
"Greece, Venice, perhaps even Bali, if you'd prefer. It's supposed to be untouched from all this concrete." He said derisively.
"All at the caveat that I give you a little blood donation once in a while."
"Well, you have to do that here too love. At least there you'd be enjoying yourself."
"I would be with you."
"Are you implying I'm not good company?" He asked feigning hurt.
"You're a homicidal maniac."
"No different than your Salvatores then. Although I do have class."
"Really? You posed as my teacher when you first came to town. It was creepy." He cocked an eyebrow as one of his hybrids placed drinks in front of them and went back. "This is why I give you blood? So that you can have people to bring you stuff." She said, almost feeling offended as he looked slightly calculating.
"Oh come on, love. I was better than your regular teacher. And my hybrids do what I ask them to."
"You were creepy as a teacher. You compelled a girl in my class to ask me to save you a dance."
"Oh that was just a method of intimidation."
"And that's supposed to make it better."
"No, it is to remind you of what I can do to get what I want."
"I told you, I don't know anything about the coffins."
"Oh yes, I know that love. But perhaps you could find out." Elena frowned.
"I can't, Stefan won't tell me." He smirked at her in that insufferable way, flashing his dimples.
"Frustrated, are we?"
"Just go, please"
"Oh, can't a hybrid have a drink his favourite doppelgänger every once in a while."
"Yeah, well, you're not my favourite hybrid." She couldn't help the laugh that escaped her at the affronted look on his face.
"Well, go on then, who is it?"
"Well, it's obviously Tyler, I've known him since we were five."
"Oh, so then you must know where he's gone off to."
"No idea, he was probably upset you made him bite his own girlfriend."
"Ah, see that was just retaliation for Stefan taking what was mine." The look he gave her was plain, yet she could see beyond it. He was possessive, and he saw her as one of his possessions. That was the reason why he kept calling her his doppelgänger and it reminded her that if someone were to take her away from him, he would probably retaliate again.
"Right well. This conversation has been fun." She said as she picked up her jacket.
"Oh, come on, stay, have another drink with me love, don't make me ask you every five minutes."
"No, pretty sure you have your hybrids for that." She said as she got up.
"That quarterback of yours looks quite delicious no." He said innocently as she froze in place, looking at where he was pointing, towards Matt. She sighed as she dropped back into her previous seat while he looked pleased with himself.
"Fine, but I can't stay too long."
"Got a curfew love?"
"Yes, actually." She elaborated at the puzzled look he gave her. "Jenna doesn't want me staying out too late after what happened with Stefan. She's still a bit wary of all the supernatural."
"Ah, a responsible parental figure. How charming." She was exhausted and didn't have the patience for whatever game he was playing.
"Look, if you're going to mock me all evening-"
"I'm not mocking you." He said seriously, and she thought he was being honest. She was going to stay and talk to him anyway, so she just gave in.
"So, what do you actually do when you're not being an evil, diabolical hybrid?"
"Trying to find some weakness you can exploit?" He asked frowning as he leaned forward.
"Look, you said you wanted to talk, so I'm talking." He looked at her with suspicion for a moment before she noticed his shoulders relax imperceptibly.
"Oh I paint." She was sure her surprise was evident when he continued. "Yes, us dark things have hobbies like the rest of you lot."
"No, it's not that, I saw your painting last time I was at your house remember? It's just that, Jeremy sketches too." She was slightly upset that she had found a similarity between her brother and him.
"Ah, the young Gilbert boy. Hmm... he didn't strike me as an artist."
"Huh, Tyler is too, you know. They were both in the art class last year."
"And here I thought I was one of a kind."
"Now you know how I feel." She said taking her drink.
"Ah, poor Elena, forever in the shadow of the ones before her." He said slowly, knowing full well the effect out would have on her.
"It's not funny, alright? Do you know how many people have probably seen Katherine naked?" She asked affronted as he let out a laugh.
"My noble brother amongst them."
"Ugh, no." She said putting her head in her hands as he continued to look amused, until a dangerous thought entered her mind. "Wait, tell me you didn't. Please."
"No, I didn't. I wasn't about to get into romantic entanglements with a doppelgänger."
"Oh thank God." She muttered even as he continued talking.
"Elijah on the other hand. They thought they were being careful, going behind my back but they weren't."
"As long as it wasn't you. That's too weird."
"There was the original though." She snapped her head to look at him so fast, she almost snapped her neck.
"Doppelgänger?"
"Oh yes." He finished his drink and called for another round, this time from a busboy.
"Well?"
"What?"
"Tell me about her!"
"Careful there darling, that sounded like a demand." He sobered at the look she threw him. "Very well. Her name was Tatia. She was the most desirable woman in the village, although she had a child from her late husband. Very sweet, innocent, and of course I don't have to tell you about her beauty, but she was also caught between the love of two brothers."
"Who?" She asked, her attention now on the wistful, faraway look on his face. She already had an idea as to who they might've been.
"Take a guess."
"You and Elijah." She breathed.
"Ah yes, that is what propelled my mother to use Tatia's blood to make us all vampires and her blood to put the curse on me. And then she killed her."
"Wow, I- I had no idea."
"Yes, it seems our mother had manipulated her, told her she was going to do a simple spell to protect us." Elena could see where Klaus had gotten his ruthlessness from.
"Your mom sounds pretty good." She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Normally, she would've tried to sympathise with him. But he was Klaus, and she wasn't going to go there.
"What about your mother?" He adored in a clear attempt to change the subject and she allowed him to do it.
"Oh which one? The one who died by drowning or the one who set herself on fire because you compelled her to?"
"Your mother died by drowning?"
"Yeah, in the car accident that killed my parents. Stefan saved my life."
"Hmm." There was a lull in the conversation and she took her chance.
"Well, I really should go now." She said, checking the time to see that it was now appropriate for her to leave.
"Yes, of course. Just swing by the house tomorrow."
"What?" She froze for the second time that night, staring at him.
"Yes, you're not exactly fun company, but you're better than hybrids who hate me."
"What makes you think I'll even show up?"
"Well, I can start draining the town dry. Or fracture Jeremy's fingers, poor lad. How will his artistic capabilities be fully realised after nerve damage?" She had told him that, she realised. Somehow she had let her guard down around him, and now he was using it to threaten her. She didn't even know why that surprised her. But that all happened in a moment, the next thing she did was truly crazy.
She didn't know what she was doing until she had done it, only seeing red. It was a reflex and she wasn't sure where it had come from. But she had ended up throwing her drink in his face.
She was shaking in anger, the adrenaline simmering down.
"Ah, touched a nerve." He said casually as he cleaned his face with a tissue. "Doppelgänger or not, do that again and I'll make you beg me to kill you."
She nodded, still too angry to say anything, but not angry enough to lose herself like that again.
"Good, that's settled then, tomorrow afternoon, 3o'clock, don't be late." With that he had gone. She was still shaking when someone placed a drink in front of her, bourbon, and looked up to see Damon sliding into the seat Klaus had vacated.
"Matt called, told me Klaus was here, what happened?"
"I threw a drink in his face and he promised he'd kill my family if I did it again." She said, still in shock at her own actions.
"Do you have a death wish Elena?" Damon asked incredulously.
"No, he just..pissed me off."
"Since when do you get pissed off? At Klaus?"
"I know it was stupid-"
"Oh good, so you knew that."
"I couldn't control myself, it won't happen again, okay?"
"Well I hope not. The last thing we want is for Klaus to be pissed off! Although, I do wish I was there to see it happen." She shook her head at him with a soft smile, somehow failing to mention she had agreed to meet Klaus the next day.
A/N : Thank you all so much for the reviews, favourites and follows. I don't want to give away anything about where I'm planning to take this story, but I do have a plan in mind. If there are any suggestions you have, or anything in particular you want to see, please feel free to let me know.
And if you get time, do leave me a review to let me know if you liked this chapter. I am always open to constructive criticism.
