"You can't just crawl to me because they didn't want you," Klaus snarls, looming over Elena, crowding her until her back is against the wall.
Elena just scoffs, staring up into his dark blue eyes. She refuses to allow herself to be intimidated. He's not going to kill her; not when, less than two weeks ago, he agreed to send away his hybrids to save her life.
"I'm not icrawling/i," she corrects him. "I'm inegotiating/i."
"I think you've confused me with my brother," Klaus tells her. He sounds amused now, rather than angry. As if she would iever/i confuse him with Elijah. (Elijah left, and Klaus is still here, for one thing.) "I've no need, nor desire, to negotiate with you."
That's a lie.
"You need me," Elena says, matter-of-factly. How is he going to make his precious hybrids without her?
"I need your blood," he corrects her. It's a distinction without a difference. She doesn't bother correcting him.
"We're getting off topic," she tells him. "And I'm coming to you ibecause/i they want me. And unlike you, they don't want me human."
It's Klaus's turn to scoff. "Your Salvatore brothers want you human – they want you weak and biddable."
Elena doesn't let the insults bother her. She's never been biddable, despite whatever Klaus – or Damon, or Stefan – may think. And although she might be weak, especially compared to Klaus, that just means that she has to find a different way to fight. A different way to get what she wants, rather than using threats or brute force.
That's exactly why she's here.
"Stefan almost turned me not two weeks ago, and Damon never misses an opportunity to shove his blood down my throat," Elena reminds him. They're tearing each other apart over her – and picking fights with beings far older, and far stronger, than they appreciate. And she knows that, one of these days, she's going to get caught in the crosshairs – her or (worse) someone she loves.
It's inevitable.
It's already happened. Bonnie's mom is a vampire now. Elena isn't going to wait around to see who dies next.
Klaus gets right in her face, staring down at her with shadowed eyes. "What game are you playing, sweetheart?" he asks.
"No games," Elena replies, refusing to back down. Their lips are a hairsbreadth apart. He could rip her heart out in a second, if he chooses to, and she couldn't stop him.
Or she could kiss him – and she chooses to, and he doesn't stop her.
No, he doesn't stop her at all. Instead, Klaus kisses back with twice as much passion, pressing his entire body against hers. She brings her hands up to clutch his curly hair, and he groans.
After a few minutes, Klaus starts to pull back, just a bit. She nips his bottom lip playfully as he goes; or perhaps not so playfully, as she watches a drop of blood bearing on his full lower lip. Klaus growls in response, and she ifeels/i the evidence of just how much he likes that, hard against her stomach.
He grabs her wrists, holding them against the wall on either side of her head, as if he can't bear to have her touch him – can't bear to cede even the least little control to her. "No games?" Klaus repeats, obviously disbelieving. "What was that, then?"
"Negotiating," she tells him. He raises an eyebrow. "I'm perfectly serious. You have your family back. There's no reason you need to stay in Mystic Falls. Leave town – and I'll come with you."
"As my willing blood bag?" Klaus asks her, his teasing voice not matching his spiteful words. She pushes away the memory of Stefan saying something similar – of just how much that hurt.
(She knows Stefan will not understand it, but she's doing this for him – and Damon – just as much as for Jeremy, and Bonnie, and Caroline, and everyone else she loves in Mystic Falls.)
"If that's how you see it," Elena responds, trying to choose her words carefully. "I'll make regular blood donations, so you can build your army of hybrids. And I'd like to have children someday, which will continue the bloodline that you find so precious. I need to be human for both of those things. I idon't/i need to be in Mystic Falls. I don't iwant/i to be in Mystic Falls. You can pick the place, or we can move around – I don't care, so long as it's far from Mystic Falls."
Klaus hums, considering it.
"How do you feel about New Orleans, Elena?" he asks, and she watches as a smirk crawls across his face. She wants to wipe it away.
So she does.
"Deal," Elena tells him, sealing the agreement with a kiss.
