When Elena enters the living room, she immediately catches sight of the cardboard box containing her old diaries on the coffee table, "Books" scrawled in her own tidy hand across the side. The packing tape is ripped off; the box is open.
Klaus is reading one of her diaries.
"Really?" Elena sighs, joining him on the sofa. Klaus doesn't respond, apparently too engrossed in whatever thoughts of hers he is reading. He just lifts his arm, pulling her in to snuggle against his side.
He doesn't even look up.
Elena would be mad, but if asked to rank his many crimes against her, this invasion of privacy wouldn't even make the list. She shouldn't have left her old diaries anywhere he could get to them. (She should have left them at home, where they would be safe, the lack of invitation a barrier to Klaus's snooping.)
Certainly, she should have known that hiding her diaries amongst her many, many boxes of books was barely hiding them at all, when it came to Klaus. He was unrelenting in the pursuit of all she was – her blood, her body, her mind, her heart.
Why should her diaries be any different? (They were hers, and therefore in his mind, they were his.)
Klaus doesn't understand boundaries – and her private thoughts, transformed to ink on paper, would be far too tempting for him to resist. He wouldn't even try. (Elena thinks of her current diary, sitting on the nightstand next to their bed, and wonders how often he's read it; she's never caught him, but that doesn't mean anything. She's very careful to write in it only the thoughts she wants him to know.)
Elena sighs again, louder this time, somehow equally put off by the fact that he isn't focusing his entire attention on her present self as she is by the fact that he's reading her old diary from – she sneaks a peak at the entry he's currently reading – winter of her sophomore year.
Wait.
iShit./i
Matt asked Elena to the winter dance that year, and they had sex for the first time shortly after. She does inot/i want Klaus to read about her losing her virginity to Matt. She's not sure Klaus even knows that Matt was her first time.
She's gotten a little better at predicting Klaus, over the course of their whirlwind romance. (And she'll continue improving with time. His pursuit of her was sudden, and relentless, but Elena learning to read his moods is entirely necessary to the safety of those around them. To learn to read them – and redirect them, if necessary.)
There's a small chance that he'll just be amused at Elena's teenage fumbling. There's a much, much greater chance that he'll be some combination of furious and jealous at the thought that Elena is still good friends with someone she once had sex with. (Elena pushes away thoughts of Stefan, compelled to forget her and sent far, far away, only Klaus's once-fondness for him saving him from losing his heart in a much more literal sense.)
And a furious and jealous Klaus is never good for the continued good health and happiness of anyone – let alone the object of his jealousy, who is currently on his first date with Rebekah and is enough of a gentleman that he'll probably walk her to the front door after their date.
Elena leans up, and presses a kiss to the corner of Klaus's mouth. His lips twist into a smirk, but he ignores her to keep reading. Elena presses another kiss to his jaw, and then peppers a series of kisses down to his neck, settling in to nibble red marks into his skin with her blunt human teeth, just for them to heal instantaneously before her eyes.
He continues to ignore her, though she notices that he hasn't turned a single page since she pressed that first kiss to his skin, and his eyes aren't quite focused on her teenage scrawl.
A game, then.
Elena gives an exaggerated huff, and sits back, sticking her bottom lip out in a pout. "Is anyone else home?" she asks Klaus.
He doesn't answer her, not willing to give up the illusion that he's still engrossed in her diary.
Fine.
Elena stands up, grabs the bottom of her shirt, and pulls it up and off in one smooth movement – before throwing it at his head. iThat/i catches his attention immediately. He pushes her shirt onto the sofa, but any reply gets caught in his throat.
Instead, he stares, transfixed, as Elena unclips her bra and lets it fall to the floor, standing in the middle of the living room in just her jeans. His eyes follow her hands as Elena caresses her own breasts, pinching her nipples with a sigh before she reaches for the button of her jeans.
"You iconsume/i me," Klaus groans, as she gets the button open and starts to pull down the zipper, revealing red lace panties underneath. (He's apparently unable to recognize the irony in saying those words to a girl he once iliterally/i consumed. Elena tucks that thought away, because it has no bearing on her current goals.) He drops her diary onto the sofa as he stands and pulls her into his arms, ducking his head for a kiss, except…
"A free show ibefore/i dinner – you shouldn't have, brother," an accented voice calls from behind her.
Klaus's lips stop inches before her own, and then he looks over her head to snarl at Kol: "Go away, unless you want another dagger in your heart."
"Touchy," Kol comments, seemingly unphased. Elena tries to turn her head to look at him over her shoulder, but Klaus is holding her so tightly that she can't manage even that. "This is a common space, you know. What is the modern term, again? Get a room?"
Klaus snarls again, and Elena knows this could get violent – fast. Elena lets herself feel amused at Kol's attempt at modern slang, and makes of show of trying to muffle her giggle into Klaus's shoulder, even though they all know it's futile – vampire ears hear ieverything/i. As she giggles, she makes sure to press her bare breasts more firmly against Klaus's chest.
It's enough – a blink, and they're standing in their room. Before Klaus can pull her into a kiss, she pushes him playfully, directing him to sit on the bed and iwatch/i her. He goes, but not without complaint. "Why must you torment me?" Klaus murmurs.
Elena finishes shimmying down her tight jeans, kicking them off to the side. And then she pauses for just a moment, taking in his words. She stands there, in just her red lace panties, staring at Klaus - fully clothed, his erection obvious, his eyes fixed on her like a compass needle to the North Pole.
He is utterly devastating, in all senses of the word, and if anyone is tormented… (Elena knows better that to voice such thoughts aloud – or to ever commit them to paper.)
"It's my calling," she replies, deciding to leave her panties on as she slides into his lap. (Elena knows how much he likes to tear them off her.) She wraps her arms around his neck and stares into his beautiful eyes, before leaning forward for a kiss.
(Later, after she's fucked him into unconsciousness, Elena will go downstairs, and feed her old diaries to the fire, one by one. There are some parts of her that she would rather lose, than share – especially if they pose any danger to those she loves.)
