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June 23rd 2009
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Klaus can honestly say that he has never been so aggressively pursued by a woman who knows every key fact about him. Oddly enough, the vast majority of admirers shy away when they learn about the trail of blood and destruction he's left in his wake, about the bloody swath he's cut through witches and wolves and vampires alike. The ones that don't, well, they're usually too power hungry to keep around, or else, too stupid to allow them to remain, slaving away under delusions that they're 'different' and they'll be the ones to fix him.
Elena isn't trying to fix him. If anything, she seems perfectly content continue along with him hybrid making quest, following after him with her own odd brand of madness.
Returning to the accommodation he shares with a travelling companion to find said companion laid on the bed, rose between her teeth and petals dusting the covers is a new one, even for him.
"Where did you even manage to get all these flowers?" Klaus asks, inspecting the waste paper pin to find the de-petalled flower stems shoved into its metal casing.
Still laid out on the bed and looking a little disgruntled that he's not immediately fallen into the sheets with her, Elena swings herself up into a sitting position and eyes him. It's a smug, teasing thing. It's not a look that's been directed his way in a long time, not since a face that looked exactly alike hers, in truth. Only, Katerina had been an innocent (compared to him anyway). She'd thought she was being smug and flirty, but she'd been a big fish in a small pond. Those little tricks hadn't been enough for him. Klaus is more shark than fish, after all.
" You left me alone with a phone for room service in a room linked to your credit card. One of many, I'm assuming. I figured what we're up to is a barter. My blood for your cash-cash money, my visions for your protectiveness. Seems a pretty fair and balanced relationship to me." She winks, reclining again but abandoning all pretence of seduction, the facade melting back into the playful, friendly girl who'd sent him a mysterious letter about portraits.
Speaking of which-
Klaus removed the newest sketchbook from his bag, a few sketching pencils following a moment later.
He'd not been inspired by Elena's scrapbook of pictures; he's far more sophisticated than that when it comes to art, to drawing and painting.
But he had found her title amusing. Just enough to take it and apply his own twist.
"Doppelgänger: the quiddity of Elena Gilbert?" Elena reads, the funny lilt to her voice indicating she absolutely no idea what the word means.
"Quiddity refers to a defining characteristic. You could call this book a documentary on what makes a successful doppelgänger." Because that's what she is, the successful one. The one to live, the one to take the hand she's been dealt (the face she's been gifted/cursed) and work with it.
"Huh. Well, I was always the one doing the drawing in my old life; it'll be cool to be the one on paper for a change," Elena declares, relaxing back into the plush fabric of the bed, arms stretched up and over her head, spine arching with the motion. It lasts a single human breath before she release the tension, whipping the covers up and around her, head nestling into the pillow. Not exactly the figure drawing he'd been going for, but there'll be years to capture that.
The soft controls of her face as she sleeps will make a fine first picture.
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'Hey Fam,
So, I'm seventeen now. Strange age; feel like I should be an adult and a kid all at the same time. Really weird.
You know, if I hadn't run away, hadn't met up with the Original Hybrid to bargain with him, I'd probably not have lived to see seventeen? Not when his lot found out about me anyway.
I'm safe and alive and quite happy where I'm at (in the passenger seat with my seatbelt tucked in, chill out, Mum) though I know you're probably so stressed and worried. It's why I keep sending the pictures and the letters. I am a'okay. I've included ones that were taken in Miami a month ago now; finally talked Klaus out of the mega expensive hotels that day, you know, the kind where you feel like you'll dirty the room just by being in it? I've got no idea how he manages to saunter through the place, tracking mud and blood wherever he goes.
Not that he's always covered in blood! He's good to me, though I knew he would be, what with seeing the future and all. He'll protect me. The only thing that's probably more important than my doppelgänger blood and visions are his family and given none of them can die, well, that kinda sums it all up, doesn't it?
Also, I'm done with high-school! I've included a diploma (did online courses; outstanding grades in everything I did, of course) for you to frame. Early graduate now in the family, aren't you proud?
…You know, I can't say I'm proud about your little side project, Dad. You know the one I mean. I've picked the side that'll keep me alive; I can only hope you don't hate me for it.
Off the depressing topic and to tie off; I love you all. Pass my love to Bonnie and Caroline too (and hell, Tyler as well, even if it has been years since I spoke to that little weasel).
I'll try and ship you some gifts from my travels at some point. We're eyeing up Europe for the future, so it should be good.
Lots of love,
Ellie'
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"Ellie?" Klaus reads aloud, one brow curving high in question, handing the letter back to her.
"It's was Jeremy calls me." There are no more questions after that, no soft 'would you like me to call you Ellie?' no 'that's a child's name'. Elena carefully folds the parchment (the look Klaus had given her upon asking for paper to write a letter with had been hilarious; he'd found her several sheets of parchment a few hours later) and slides it into her side bag. There aren't many people out on the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina at three in the morning. How Klaus had even managed to read her letter (after she'd shoved it under her nose as asked if he minded her referring to him by name, to which Klaus had shrugged with all the care of a god being asked if he minds the mortals' worship) between the glow of streetlamps, she's not sure.
"You know what yesterday was?" Elena asks, continuing before Klaus can even attempt to voice the answer, too eager to depart the information on him. "My seventeenth birthday. I'm a year past legal in England."
"And a year until legal in America," Klaus cheerfully chips in, twisting on his heels to take a sharp left down a back alley, forcing Elena to scuttle after him, nearly tripping on her own feet as she goes. She's not quite sure what they're here for, not quite sure why they're in North Carolina (so close, just one state over from home in this life) but it must be important if Klaus dares bring her out and about here where the police force probably know her face.
"What's a year to someone who's lived as many as you?" she counters, bouncing over to his side again, looping her arm through his. Klaus considers the contact for a moment before allowing it to continue, tucking her arm a little firmer to his side.
"The age of consent had been a long time coming, Little Love. It's only sensible that children don't get dragged into situations that can disturb adults if it's not done right and willing." He tilts his head back and, if she weren't any wiser to his tricks, Elena would assume him to be perusing a night's sky that she cannot see from the light pollution. The tiniest movement of his eyes, however, lets her know he's scanning their surroundings. Enemy territory?
"But mentally, you're not a child, are you?"
"Woah, wait, does this mean I've got a chance?"
Klaus doesn't answer her, just reels her suddenly through a little side door, leading their feet through the corridor that spits them out in the middle of a nightclub. The music thrums through the air, vibrates into Elena's bones, the sound near hypnotic. There has to be a spell on this place, some kind of sound-cancelling one because she sure hadn't heard anything from outside.
Klaus weaves them through the drunken revellers, pausing only when one particularly drunk idiot makes a grab for her and she has to preemptively slap his hand away.
"Head to the bar, Mate, you're going to get me the most expensive bottle of scotch they've got, a coke for the lady, and then you'll be buying everybody in here a drink. I don't care how much debt it lands you in. Jog on." And, well, given Klaus usual inclination for violence, that was probably the best revenge move.
Elena still wishes he'd have punched him in the nose but the night is still young.
"So, what are we doing here?" Elena asks as they take a seat in a booth Klaus vacates by simply stating his name and the fact he has a meeting here. Given how quickly people scatter, she's going to assume that they're either all supernatural, or all in the know. If they are supernatural, well, based on her own knowledge and visions, she's surprised one of them isn't an enemy Klaus has pissed off at some point. The odds are more than likely in truth.
"We're here for papers, Love. Your idea on European werewolves may yet bear some fruit."
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July 30th 2009
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It has been nearly three months since Jeremy's sister disappeared. The term everyone is using is kidnapped but he's not so sure about that. He's read her letters after all, knows his sister like the back of his hand. Her strange conversations as a child, her irritating answer of 'I saw it in a dream' whenever she guessed a surprise he'd spent weeks trying to hide form her… well, it all makes sense now, doesn't it?
That Dad's confirmed the whole vampire thing (has even started training him up on how to hunt them) just certifies it. He doesn't have time for much of anything now, too invested in the hunt for Ellie. It doesn't matter that everybody else calls her Elena now; she's always been Ellie to him and always will be. For as long as she signs off the letters meant for him by that nickname (doesn't matter if she addresses it to the 'Fam', if it's signed Ellie, it was meant for him), she's Ellie. His ridiculous big sister who can see the future and who's blood is so important the strongest supernatural in the world has put her under his protection. Aggressively so.
And it must be the strongest supernatural in the world; Jeremy had heard his parents' arguments after that letter last month, heard when Dad had come clean about what he was getting up to at his club thing, had heard Mum rage and sob over it all. He'd been there when Dad had returned from what must have been an interrogation with a vampire (how, Jeremy isn't sure, he just knows that Dad managed it) as pale as a ghost. He's heard how this Klaus is very real, that vampires (creatures of the night that kill for food and fun) violently flinch away when his name is mentioned.
He also learns that Ellie is adopted, a nugget of information revealed when Dad has to call Uncle John (Ellie's real dad, what the fuck) for a vial of his blood. Because apparently, Ellie's friend Bonnie has a witchy grandma. And now, Bonnie's learning about all the supernatural shit in the hope she can help get her friend back.
Only, Jeremy isn't so sure they should be trying to get Ellie back.
Oh, don't get him wrong, he misses her like crazy. His sister who'd punched Tyler Lockwood in the nose at the age of nine, breaking off her friendship with him upon learning he'd been bullying Jeremy (Mrs Lockwood's still upset over the whole thing; Jeremy's sure she'd had Ellie pegged as her future Daughter-in-Law). She means the world to him.
Which is why Jeremy's almost sure she's in the right here. The more he hears about doppelgängers (and wow, does Sheila Bennett know her stuff), the more worried for Ellie he's become. Werewolves have a reason to want her dead, vampires will want her dead so she can't turn the tables in their stand off with the wolves, and witches can use her blood to empower themselves. It's fucking crazy but that's his life now, it seems.
Perhaps the only good thing to come of this is the fact he's ended up away from Vicky and the rest of the stoners. He's got too much on his plate to be off getting high now. Instead, most of his time is spent with Bonnie as she learns her craft, feeling an angry tension build up in his stomach.
Uncle John's blood hadn't worked, which means Ellie's under some kind of cloaking spell according to Sheila Bennett. Which leads their only leads to her as the letters she sends.
There's no point in putting the vampire's face out there on the news, Shelia had advised them. Not when it's this fearsome Klaus guy, who apparently has so many connections he could just get the case snuffed down into nothingness. Unsurprisingly, there's very few people who are willing to fuck with a thousand-year-old vampire.
So, all Jeremy can do is stare down at the picture that contains two faces, one familiar, one foreign. This Klaus guy doesn't look like much in truth. Hell, he can't be any older than twenty-one if Jeremy had to take a guess on his physical age. Curled hair in a dirty blond and blue-green eyes; the photo could probably pass as two teenagers running riot, out on their own an adventure.
Ellie's got a massive pair of sunglasses on the top of her head, lips pursed and cheeks sucked in, eyes crossed as if she's attempting to look at the tip of her nose. Beside her, this Klaus guy that all the other vampires are scared of looks fondly exasperated by her behaviour.
It's the first picture they've got of the kidnapper (the protector she herself contacted; Ellie insists in her letters) and Jeremy is really struggling to see what it is about this guy that terrifies other vampires.
More importantly, the background of the picture is that of an airport; they could be anywhere in the world by now.
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He leaves the letter out for Mum to read, given she'll be home first. He's halfway down the street, heading over to Bonnie's place, when another guy falls into step with him. He's tall and the kind of pretty Ellie'd probably like.
Jeremy's never seen him before in his life.
"Hey, you're Jeremy Gilbert, right?" But, apparently, he knows him by his face alone.
"Yeah, what's it to you?" The unsaid 'I've never seen you around here before' lingers between them and the guy sighs, running a hand through his hair and looking down the street for a moment. Like he's expecting someone to be watching them or something.
"My name's Stefan Salvatore. I heard about your sister and I want to help."
"Doesn't everyone? You're fresh out of luck, Pal, I doubt you can help me."
"Not even if I knew a girl who looked just like her over a hundred years ago?"
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"Jeremy! You can't just invite a vampire inside your home!"
Bonnie's heart is beating out of her chest with the sense of 'wrongwrongwrong' that's vibrating through her. It's one thing to know about vampires, to be trained up by Grams (all because Elena's gone, all because she got taken by a vampire) and it's another thing altogether to meet one herself.
She knows they're getting a new kid at school when they go back after break; Caroline hasn't shut up about it. Not that Bonnie sees much of her now, what with studying with Grams to try and get Elena back.
But this 'Stefan Salvatore' isn't a kid, is he?
"Bon, he's here to help. Stefan knew another doppelgänger before all of this went down and he's a vampire; maybe he can help." Its so, so difficult to ignore Jeremy when he's looking at her with those pleading puppy eyes. God, she'd always made fun of Elena for dropping everything to help her kid brother but, now that she's on the end of those watery eyes, she can kind of understand why her best friend was like that. Will be like that, when she gets back.
Bonnie eyes the vampire who eyes her back, earnest goodwill written all over his attractive face.
"Fine," she gripes, pulling her hair back into a ponytail, all the while silently promising that she will not be inviting this vampire into anywhere. "But one wrong move and I'm setting you on fire."
"That's fine. I don't drink from humans anyway. Stefan Salvatore."
"Bonnie Bennett. Now, what do you know about these 'Originals'?"
From the incredibly blank look on Stefan's face, Bonnie rather gets the feeling he won't be much help at all.
Typical.
Time-skip up ahead. I may one day write Elena & Klaus in Europe, but that day is not today.
Enjoy?
Tsume
xxx