I tried uploading the chapter last night, but things apparently went colossally wrong. Something with the formatting- I don't know, but it looks weird AF. Anyway, hopefully this looks right! Let me know what you think!

"So I decided what I want for my birthday," I tell Klaus, resting my chin on my knee. He, on the other side of the living room with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a pencil in the other (a sketchbook rested on his lap), raises a sharp but curious eyebrow at me. He makes a humming sound to let me know he was listening.

That wasn't good enough, was it? Ignoring the– wow, ouch– pain from my inner elbow that came from moving as the blood-sucking needle worked to drain me of a few vials' worth of life-sustaining sustenance, I straighten a little. "I heard a little rumor that you had a thing for birthdays…like, you're, like, crazy for them."

The pencil had stopped moving on the paper. No full attention yet, but getting there. "And who's been filling your head with rumors, sweetheart?"

"Come on," I say. "Who here in this town did you save on their deathbed? Got them a bracelet? Promised the world and beyond?"

Klaus may have been an enigma to me so far, but I knew enough to recognize that the ticked-off muscle twitching in his jaw wasn't exactly an indication of his happiness. I quickly add, "So is it true then? You like birthdays?"

The breath he lets out is measured. He looks at me, gaze all calculated like he's trying to figure out my intentions. He finally answers, "Yes, Elena. I have a certain fondness for birthdays."

I beam. "Great. So if I ask for something, will you get it for me as a gift?"

He tilts his head like he was confused. "That is assuming I have a fondness for you."

Few times in my life have my jaw dropped so quickly, except for, like, death and life situations and jump scares. "You've locked me in this town when I could be sightseeing in Mexico by now– or surfing in Hawaii or spending time with my brother. The least you could do is indulge me a little."

"Oh, but I have been indulging you, love," Klaus says. "This goes both ways, you know. I have been limited to this tedious town in the armpit of civilization. Any moment, if I decided to rejoin society– or at least go somewhere that has more than one Starbucks, do you genuinely believe you could keep this semblance of a normal life?"

I have his full attention now, and I regretted craving it. What was I thinking anyway? Thinking I wanted Klaus Mikaelson's attention? If I had ever thought Stefan– Damon's attention was intense, it was nothing compared to the whirlwind in my stomach when Klaus focused those predator-like eyes of his on me, like a lion toying lazily with his prey. Right now, it was less "toying" and more "about to pounce" kind of eyes. All focused, all narrowed, and all coiled.

"Indulge you," he repeats. His expression shifts, but there was no way I would call what it looked like a 'smile.' It was a mockery of one, of me. "You should be thanking me. If it weren't for Elijah's rule regarding keeping you safe and for some reason unknown to me, sane, you wouldn't be allowed to leave this house, never mind go back to your childhood home and have your inane conversations with your friends when they give you the time of the day. Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but you should be-"

"Now, now brother," a new voice interjects. I could swear that Klaus jumped when I did at the interruption. "I thought we agreed we were going to be civil? As in: not intimidate and terrorize our guest?"

Neither of us had heard him come through the front door, but a pristine, steel-like metal suitcase was by it. Elijah? No one ever came back from a trip looking as immaculate as he looked, but the evidence stared back at me, suit, tie, and not a hair out of place. Elijah's expression is warm when it's directed at me, but it's frosty when he looks back at Klaus.

"Elijah," I breathe.

"Elijah," counters Klaus at the same time, getting up. "The honorable one returns. I see distance hasn't taken that moral stick out of your-"

"I would thank you not to be so vulgar, Niklaus," Elijah says. He steps deeper into the living room.

I lose his attention to my arm. He then looks at the half full bag of blood hanging by my side. "I would also say that's enough for today, Elena. Thank you for your contribution." His next step brings him closer to me. My limbs lock in tight as he crouches by my feet. The needle being pulled from my flesh wasn't any less painful than usual, but I give it as much attention as I did Klaus– which was none, not when charming Elijah was actually nearly kneeling below me.

The second-eldest Mikaelson easily finds the first aid kit next to me on the sofa and makes quick work of pressing an alcohol wipe to the wound and gently laying a bandaid on it.

"Wait for me in the car, would you, sweetheart?" Elijah says casually, like he doesn't have Klaus and I bound in place.

My head doesn't dare get dizzy for the first time in weeks when I get up from the sofa, and the credit entirely lies on Elijah. I barely shoot a glance at Klaus, who I should never have forgotten that he only barely tolerates my presence because I'm useful, not because he enjoys my company, before I leave.

A familiar black SUV with open windows is parked right in front of the door. No voices– or breaking objects– come from inside, so I figure both Originals are waiting for me to get out of hearing range before they talk. Not wanting to prompt anyone to talk to me (I swear I'm one unkind word away from breaking into tears), I get myself in the car, which is already unlocked.

There, I have some time for my most recent memories to come in and make me cringe. What were you thinking? I scold myself. One sort of pleasant moment with Klaus and I and think that we're, what, friends? That he's not just talking to me because of the ancient doppelganger blood in my veins? Please, if Stefan and Damon couldn't stand my presence for a moment longer, and they actually liked/loved me, then why would Klaus Mikaelson out of all people want to joke around with me? The next morning, when Klaus undoubtedly called me back to finish my weekly quota of blood, he would for sure continue antagonizing me. I should never have opened my m-

The driver's seat is unlocked, and Elijah gracefully slides in. "Sorry to have kept you waiting," he says smoothly. The car is nearly silent as he starts it and begins driving us out of his driveway. "Niklaus and I needed to have a few words."

It's at that moment that I realize I'm unable to stop myself from staring at Elijah, who's endlessly fascinating to me. "It's okay," I say, mostly because I need to say something to justify looking at him. Then, to fill the half second of silence that follows, I add, "I'm kind of friends with Kol now. I'm sorry I ignored your warning."

The expression on Elijah's face, briefly illuminated by street lights every few seconds on the empty road is warm. The temptation to open the overhead light is there because those flashes of light aren't enough for me to get my fill of staring at him.

"I know," he tells me. "Niklaus informed me rather animatedly about what he believes to be the looming repercussions from you and Kol's 'friendship.'"

Looming repercussions? "We hung out for a few days, gossiped, and now we text every now and then."

"Kol is dangerous," Elijah says. "He may not have shown it yet, but he is. Klaus and I know all too well what he is capable of."

Something is triggered within me. In the past few months, Kol Mikaelson may have been the nicest person to me in this town, excluding Elijah, whose interactions with me always left me confused. And yeah, we may have only hung out for a brief time, but that glimpse was enough to allow me to view some of his thoughts. His brothers? They treated him like a trigger, which was extremely triggering to him. They also barely give him attention. He wasn't even included in the infamous "always and forever" vow.

"It's not like he's any less dangerous than you or Klaus." I can't believe I'm saying this as I say it. I want to defend Kol, though. "At least you know where you stand with him. If he wants to kill you, you'll know. If he likes you, he tells you." You know you're the most special doppelganger out there.

As the road starts leading back to civility, cars start to join our lane, breaking the isolation I'd felt when it was just our car between the trees that surrounded the miles around the Mikaelson manor.

It takes a moment for Elijah to process my words, dig around for special, hidden meaning, and say back: "What happened with Niklaus during my absence? I only caught the last of your conversation with him."

A flight or fight instinct has me sinking in my seat a little. Home was still a few minutes away, not nearly long enough to evade answering his question.

I sigh. "It's stupid." Elijah takes his eyes off the road and looks into my eyes for this one. His gaze is sharp. A warning? He nods for me to continue. A little more hesitantly, I elaborate, "For a guy who killed me and terrorized me and my friends for months, he's not really that apologetic." How conceit and self-centered that sounded has me closing my eyes. "Not that I expect him to apologize to me. It would at least, like, be nice if he was. Or at least if he acted a little nicer."

Elijah keeps up with everything I'm saying, nodding with every couple of words. At the end, he asks, "What prompted his 'indulgence' rant?"

"It's also stupid– and a long story," I say, thinking back to the past few days. Before the words are out of my mouth, Elijah interjects.

"Elena, nothing you do or say is 'stupid,'" he says, tone firm. His look earlier had been a warning. "You're entitled to complain if my brother upset you. My brother does tend to upset a lot of people. And I don't mind if it's a long story. If you want to tell me about what has happened since I left, I'm all ears."

Yeah, that part about Klaus must have been an understatement, but it encourages me to continue– and the other parts encourage a rush of heat to travel up my neck and to my cheeks. I'm now thankful for the darkness in the car now.

Later that night, I'll lie in bed thinking about how it's been months since someone has been interested in hearing me talk for more than five seconds. The longest record for one of my and Jeremy's conversations is two minutes. Bonnie's five. Caroline is ten, and that included some small talk with her mom and Tyler.

God, even Klaus had noticed how little my friends and one remaining family member wanted to talk to me. Was he right to call our conversions 'inane?'

I'll blame this rush of emotion as the culprit behind the explanation that spills out of me like…like– like vomit. I tell Elijah of how I bonded with Kol and our movie marathons over the one week he stayed in town. I tell him of Klaus and I silently sharing our afternoons while the new nurse situation was being worked out, and how one afternoon we broke that silence to talk and for him to quote French writers to me and how that paved the way for me to grow bolder with him. I'm dragging my hands through my hair as I recount the painting incident, inwardly cringing at my actions. When I reach the part about my birthday, I'm drained.

"I was just teasing, you know," I say to Elijah, half-turned around in my seat. The frequency he glances at me with has increased, and I want a front-row seat for them. "About the gift. You know how sometimes someone talks just for the sake of talking?" Because they're trying not to go insane from loneliness because this is the first time they've been alone in their lifetime? Though Elijah doesn't strike me as someone who talks for the sake of talking.

He nods, though, so I go on,

"Maybe he snapped because I brought up Caroline," I muse. "I don't know. He seemed fine afterward, like he snapped out of it quickly. Maybe he just really doesn't want to get me a gift."

I'm startled when Elijah reaches between us, but it's only to put the car in park. We're in front of my house. Frankly, it looks like we'd been parked for some time and Elijah is just shifting the gears now. I breathe out. "I told you it was–" I don't want to say 'stupid' again, so I switch it with "- inane."

"It's not," Elijah tells me after a split second of consideration. "Don't take whatever my brother says to heart, Elena. Instead of thinking whether or not he likes or, as you put it, tolerates you, think about whether or not you tolerate him."

A scene flashes before my eyes; the triumphant gleam in Klaus' eyes before he burrowed his face in my neck– how my entire body shuddered at that moment before it locked up tight in pain when he finally bit. How, for a single moment, I held on to him, too, before I fell.

The fear I'd felt when I had taken a turn on Senior Prank Night and ran into Klaus. He'd legit slapped me that night– and bruised my arms.

Bruises. My arm, the pain in which was a dull but persistent throbbing, twitched, as if perking up at the attention. Half of my forearm was just one giant bruise by now.

And I was seeking his approval? His, what, conversation? I wanted the ground to swallow me whole.

I can't find any words to say, I go with a generic but genuine: "I'll keep that in mind." My smile for Elijah is genuine, too. I begin to grasp the door handle. "Thanks for driving me home."

"It's no problem," Elijah says. "Allow me to walk you to your door?"

Ah, the gentleman. In a moment, he's gone from the driver's seat. My door is opened, and he steps back to let me get out. Silently, we take those few steps towards my house, up the porch's stairs, and to the door.

"Also," says Elijah, placing his hands in his pockets, "Allow me to apologize for my prolonged absence. It seems…much calamity has ensued during that period. I said I would keep you from harm's way, and I haven't been keeping my word very well."

"You did keep your word," I say. At his curious look, I smile and add, "About the next we were going to speak. You said it would be face to face. You kept that promise." Though it took him around two weeks to get to it.

"I did." Elijah looks serious. "I'll speak with Niklaus. See what if I can wrangle some civility from him," he says with a kind of smile. "You do deserve a little indulgence."

My smile softens. "Thank you."

"Anything," he says back.

Since it looks like neither of us is going to say anything else, I smile again in goodbye and take my keys out of my pocket. Just as I'm about to turn my back, Elijah says:

"What did you want?"

My brows furrow in confusion. What? "What?"

He clarifies. "For your birthday. What did you ask Niklaus to get you?"

"Oh." I leave the keys in the door and hope that the street lights aren't bright enough to illuminate my blush. It's stupid. "I wanted another painting I could finish, like I did with that flower one."

I'd also told him about that. Then, Elijah had barely changed his expression upon hearing I'd messed with one of Klaus' paintings, so I figured it wasn't that much of a big deal.

Now, he nods. He takes a step back. "Goodbye, Elena."

"See you," I say. I watch him take the porch steps. At the last one, I call out, "It's good to have you back."

Elijah turns around. He smiles. "I'll see you tomorrow, Elena."

Hi, long time no see! Things have been crazy hectic for, what, over a year now? I kind of gave up on this story or made up scenes that take place in the future of the story that I couldn't publish because a bunch of things needed to happen that I haven't written yet. But inspiration struck and here we are!

Elijah's back! What did you think of his return? Elena was just feeling down and interactions with the Mikaelson brothers will start to go a little differently in the near future. Don't worry, Elijah will still make her food and smoothies.

Klaus is snappish, but stick with him all right? Who are you rooting for to make the first real move at Elena? Klaus, Elijah, or Kol?

Let me know in the comments! Thank you to everyone who's followed or favorited this story! See you next chapter, which may come sooner than you think!