"Please Chris, it's just a tiny little tattoo." I beg with puppy eyes.
I've been here for about three hours now, and for the last three hours I've been bugging him to give me a tattoo. It's his fault really, all day with him, watching him tattoo other people. It was bound to happen. I've always wanted a tattoo and I only trust him to give me them.
"Livy, you're not even eighteen yet." He sighs at me, not bothering to look up from the sketch he's working on for one of his appointments.
Scoffing at him, "So what? I have no parents to bitch about it. No one is going to even complain or bother you about it. Plus, you're the one who told me that you would murder me should I even consider going anywhere else for a tattoo!"
Seeing that he isn't budging, I walk over and throw my arm around his shoulders, laying my head next to his, "Come on Chris, just two little quotes. They can be all dainty and cute. I'm fucking begging you here. You know I hate the begging thing."
Feeling him sigh, "Fine. When I close for the night I'll do it. Now, you should go out and explore a bit. I've got a packed few hours since you decided to spur of the moment come and see me and I wasn't prepared to entertain you all day. I promise after we close, and tomorrow until you leave, I'm all yours."
Smiling at him, I kiss his cheek, "I love you! I'll be back around the time you close. Don't lock me out."
Two hours later and I'm dying for a caffeine fix, wandering into this cute little coffee and bookstore place I found, I order the biggest size coffee I can get.
If I ever did open a business, it would be something like this. Coffee and books. The perfect combination, maybe a little section for artists to display their work. Peaceful, the kind of place you can spend hours in and not have a care in the world.
Walking slowly through the bookstore section my eyes glance over the titles, grabbing the ones that intrigue me the most. I tuck the few books I grabbed into my left arm and make my way to a little table in the corner.
Opening one of the books I start to read the first few chapters of it, not long into the book I can feel someone's eyes on me. Looking up, I search the place for the culprit. Nothing. Not one person is looking in my direction, not that I can see at least. With one last glance around I focus back on the book. I'll wait. If it's important to whoever it is, they'll make their presence known eventually.
Another ten minutes go by and I finish off my coffee, setting it back down on the table I debate getting up to order another one, when someone sets a fresh cup down next to me. Stiffening a little before I take my eyes off the book in front of me.
"Hello love, I believe you know my big brother." I hear an accented voice say to me.
Turning my head to look at the chair across the table from me, I see an attractive looking man with a smirk present on his face. Early twenties at most, short blonde hair paired with the most intense blue eyes I've ever seen.
"Niklaus, I presume." I say with thinly veiled interest for the man.
"Call me Klaus, love." He offers as he sips on whatever beverage he got for himself.
"No. I think I'll call you Nik. After all, from what I know now, we're basically family." I smirk at him, my eyes never leaving his as I drink my coffee.
Laughing, "Well played love. Well played. I see Elijah has been filling you in on the role you have in our family."
"I would ask how you know it's Elijah who told me, but since you currently have the rest of your family daggered and supposedly thrown into the oceans, I guess that was rather obvious." I say with bitterness in my tone.
"Don't seem so put out, Olivia. Do you honestly believe I would throw away my family?" He asks me.
"No." I say boldly, "I don't believe it for a second. Elijah however, does. He's adamant that you have, that he'll never get them back. I have to believe that I'll get Kol eventually. Otherwise my eternity will be rather grim."
He stares at me, holding my gaze in his, almost as if he's gauging if he can trust me or not. I already know that I need to be cautious, not overly just enough. Though I know he won't harm me. It's in his eyes; their eyes always give them away. They aren't called the windows into the soul for nothing.
"You'd be correct in that assumption. I would never discard my family like day old trash. I was quite angry with Elijah when I told him that. I'm afraid he's harbored resentment toward me ever since." He admitted.
"Take me to see him." I said with conviction.
He looked at me, the war between letting me see Kol and keeping his family locked away from the knowledge of anyone going on in his eyes.
"Just…just let me see the coffin. Nik I need to see it. I swear on my life – on Kol's life, I will not tell anyone where they are. I just need to see him, to be near him even if it's only for a few moments." My voice sounded desperate, a tone I rarely ever used, and an emotion I felt even less.
"You will not pull the dagger out." His tone left no room for argument.
"I promise." I tell him.
Standing in front of Kol's coffin I hesitate, gently putting my palm on the top of it, taking a deep breath as I let my emotions settle. I can feel him, the magnet like pull stronger than I ever felt before.
Overwhelmed by my emotions I can feel the tears in my eyes as I lay my forehead down on top of it, closing my eyes. I've never felt more vulnerable than right now. Never felt more at peace and more at war with myself in the same moment. Being here, being this close to him and not being able to wake him – I must be a masochist.
"You're not going to open it love?" Nik asks with confusion clear in his voice.
Not lifting my head up, "No. If I see what he looks like, it will kill me. Being this close to him is enough for now, I can still pretend almost that he's not in there. If I see him, I'll want to wake him up. Want to stay with him and I can't. Just knowing that he's safe, that one day the dagger will be removed from his chest is enough right now."
"I will wake him, all of them," He tells me sincerely. "You won't be waiting for too much longer."
I can hear the vulnerability flow through his words. He wants his family out of these coffins as much as I want Kol, but he's scared.
"I know. I trust you with him, Nik. I should get back, my friend Chris will start to worry if I'm not back soon."
Placing his hand on my lower back he leads me away from the coffin, from Kol and to the SUV. The drive back I was quiet. The silence was far from awkward, it was comfortable, as if I had known him my whole life and this was the way we were. It's ironic that I can sit in his presence, the man who needs to kill my sister for some idiotic curse to help vampires not be kept by the sun.
Pausing, I turn to him, "Nik? The curse, the one my sister needs to die for, what is it really for?"
Surprise flickers through his face but is gone just as fast as it appears, "How do you know that it's not a real curse?"
"You're on original. The entirety of the sun and the moon curse doesn't even apply to you." I shrug, "I only just realized that it can't be real."
"You're more intuitive than I thought you were. You're correct, it's fake." He says with a laugh, "Elijah and I created the lore behind it many, many centuries ago."
"Why on earth would you need to create a fake curse?"
"There is a curse Olivia, just not the one everyone is so determined to end. The elements for the real curse itself are the same, I need a doppelgänger, and I need the moonstone. Which has been lost for centuries thanks to Katerina. What better way to ensure that I find it, than to have both species looking for it." A smug looked presents itself on his face.
"Are you going to enlighten me to the actual curse or beat around the bush?" I ask him.
"The real curse is one placed solely on myself." He sighs, looking away from me. "My mother, nasty woman that she was, was unfaithful to her husband. I am the result of her affair, an affair she had with a werewolf. My father, Mikael, found this out after my family became vampires."
Staring at him, the meanings of his words hitting me like a ton of bricks. He's both. A hybrid. Not that I should be surprised with the supernatural world anymore.
"You're a hybrid."
"I am. Or I would be had my mother not cursed me to appease my father. Not that it did any good at all. The bloody bastard started a war between the species because of it. My mother chose to abandon me, binding my werewolf side with the Petrova blood and a moonstone. The only way for me to become truly a hybrid, truly immortal, is to break the curse.
"I have spent a thousand years searching for a doppelgänger, finding Katerina was an accomplishment. Her finding out the truth behind why I needed her there, her running for five hundred years with my moonstone was not part of the plan. Your sister I'm assured will not leave like Katerina did. She won't run will she?"
Scoffing bitterly at him, "Elena run? Please, she'll sacrifice her life to save everyone. Not that any one in her life will allow that to happen. They'll find a way to keep her alive you know that right? They won't let her stay dead."
"I have no doubts of that love. I won't bother asking for your help, I won't put you in that situation. I will however, ask that you keep our little meeting today to yourself." He tells me as we pull up in front of Chris' shop.
"I wouldn't help you regardless if you asked me to or not. We may be on the outs right now, but she's still my twin. Of course I'll keep this to myself, they have their secrets as they don't see fit to trust me anymore, so I'll have mine." Opening the door to get out of the car.
Pausing as I close the door, "After it's all said and done Nik, I'll help you with whatever reason you have for daggering your family. You're scared, I don't know of what exactly, but I want Kol. Helping you get rid of whatever, or whoever it is that's making you keep him in a coffin ensures me his presence in my life sooner. I can't die, so you can trust me to help you."
Not giving him a chance to respond I closed the car door and walked into the empty tattoo shop to find Chris.
Throwing myself onto the couch next to him, I bury my head into the pillow.
Laughing at me, "Rough day exploring the city?"
Lifting my head slightly to glare at him, "More like information overload. I'm quite conflicted in my feelings right now."
"You wanna talk about it?" He asks while he rubs my back gently.
"Not yet. I've gotta process it all first. I would much rather you tattoo me now." I say with a cheeky look on my face.
"Come on then trouble." He grabs my hand, pulling me off the couch and back to his station in the shop.
Sitting down gracefully in the chair, "You love me and you know it."
Surprisingly the tattoos didn't hurt me much at all. It felt more like a constant stinging sensation rather than actual pain – I'm definitely getting more in the future.
I didn't go with anything too crazy, just two quotes in Latin. Tiny, dainty lettering, they were simple. Exactly what I had wanted. I got 'Carpe Noctem' which means, 'Seize the Night' along my collarbone on the right side. As cliché as it sounds, I had always found comfort in the night, the moon, the stars, it all helped calm me down. My biggest decisions were all made during the night.
My other was, 'Non Omnis Moriar' which means, 'Not all of me will die'. Fitting for me since I really won't be dying anytime soon. A part of me will die when I eventually become a vampire, I'm not sure which part, but I won't die wholly. I'll always live.
Throwing my arms around Chris' torso, being careful of my tattoos, "I love them! They're absolutely perfect!"
"Damn right they're perfect." He laughs, "I'm happy you like them, they'll be there on your skin forever."
And what a long forever that will be, "Yes. Yes they will."
"Let me clean up and we'll head back to the apartment. We can go to Kyle's tonight if you want." He suggests to me as he moves around to gather everything up.
"Hell yeah! I miss Kyle." I say to him as I sit back down in a swivel chair and spin myself around. "He always lets me drink there even though I'm clearly underage."
"That's because he's a terrible influence, and I should really care more about that than I do." He yells from the back room.
"Oh please, you're one to talk. You're the first person who ever got me drunk, and showed me how to use a bong correctly." I laugh at him.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's go."
"Kyle!" I yell over the music in the bar, "Did you miss me terribly?"
Looking up at the sound of my voice, he smiles and walks out from behind the bar, "Of course I missed you my little delinquent. Let me look at you."
Laughing, I spin around slowly, "I finally convinced Chris to tattoo me tonight."
"It was only a matter of time before he caved." He said pulling me into a hug, "You look good Liv."
Hugging him back tightly, "You don't look so bad yourself. How you're not off the market is astounding to me."
Grabbing Chris' hand I pull him to the bar and sit towards the end where Kyle usually works. Even though he owns the place he can't help but be behind a bar, really though he just wants to keep an eye on the place. He could never let anyone else truly take over.
This bar was his child, he poured his blood, sweat and tears into it until it became what it is today. A safe haven for people who felt clubs were too flashy, and sports bars were obnoxious and filled with drunken frat boys or older men reliving the glory days. He wanted a place for people like him and Chris to come and socialize and get drunk. He succeeded.
It's got a million posters along the walls, different promos from over the years for all the bands that have played here since he opened it about eight years ago. It was cozy, not something you generally say about a bar, but it felt like home. No matter how many times I'd watch him and whoever was working that night break up a fight, or throw out whichever guy thought they could hit on me that night, I always wanted to come here when I visited.
It was a place I could get trashed and not worry about my safety. Everyone who worked here knows who I am, knows to look out for me even if it doesn't look like I need watching after.
"So, you wanna tell me why the surprise visit to see me?" Chris finally asked me. I had been waiting all day for this question. Genuinely surprised it took this long.
"Just some drama with Elena and her boyfriend. His brother. My Uncle. Jenna. Her boyfriend. Caroline. Jeremy. Basically everyone in my life back home, I needed to get away. I just…it was too much, ya know?" I tell him as I happily take the shot Kyle placed in front of me.
"How can you possibly be on the outs with everyone you know back home?" Kyle asks placing some drink in front of me.
"It's complicated." I shrug, hoping they'll leave it at that. Knowing full well they wont.
"Nu uh." Chris shakes his head at me, "You drove all the way here for the night. It's clearly something big."
"It's also not exactly a conversation to have in the middle of a crowded bar." I say back to him, determined to drop this for the time being.
"Then we can go upstairs to my office. Devon's here tonight and he can watch the place while we talk about your issues." Kyle said, walking away to tell Devon to watch the bar.
Groaning loudly, I grab my glass and follow him up the stairs. How exactly am I suppose to tell them what's going on when I can't even tell them the real reason? Sometimes I hate how fucking brotherly they can be.
"It's not that I don't want to tell you guys, " I start as I sit down on the couch, "I just can't tell you everything. I don't exactly know how safe it is for you to know the details."
"If your safety is in question then we have every right to know. I've always looked out for you, that hasn't changed just because I live in New York." Chris says turning my body to face him and Kyle.
"Exactly, we're the big brothers you never knew you wanted in your life. You cemented yourself in my life the first night Chris brought you here, regardless of the fact that you were sixteen at the time and I should have killed him for bringing you here." Kyle says with a shrug.
"I won't tell you details. Not yet, I just need to work this out on my own first, but I can tell you bits. Elena, we, well we're not as close as we use to be. She's got this boyfriend, Stefan Salvatore, and his brother Damon, brilliant little love triangle they've got going on. Everyone is being dragged into it, Caroline was dating Damon for a small window of time but he didn't really want to date her. Really he just used her to get closer to Elena and to get under Stefan's skin.
I can ignore that for the most part honestly. It's got nothing to do with me and if they all fuck up their emotional life then that's on them. I found out I'm adopted, Elena and me. Uncle John, he's my biological father. Which as you can imagine since you've met him, was a fucking shock."
"John is your father!" Chris shouts amused, "Holy shit! Didn't see that coming at all."
"How do you think I feel?" I laugh, "I mean we never even thought any different and now he's, well he's getting on my damned nerves."
"Your sisters love triangle is not enough of a reason for you to run here," Kyle says softly, "Neither is finding out your Uncle is really your father. You're a strong girl. You can handle all of that. What else is going on?"
Sighing, "There's this guy. Well his family really, no one likes them. I mean, they don't think they're trust worthy, which I understand. I mean they can come off as dangerous and I suppose they are, but I really care about him. For the first time in my life I really want to let someone into my heart that way and I know that everyone will give me a hard time about it because of his family."
I could barely look at them, knowing full well I wasn't completely lying to them, but half-truths were still partial lies. I've never really lied to Chris before, always told him exactly what was going on and why I was angry or upset, until now. I can't exactly go into the whole 'supernatural shit is real' thing right now. They don't live in Mystic Falls so really they aren't in the middle of everything.
It's hypocritical of me I suppose, I was so adamant about telling Jenna and here I am lying to my best friend.
"Fuck what they think." Kyle says abruptly shaking me from my thoughts. "If they can't fucking let you be happy with someone just because his family may be a bunch of assholes then they aren't worth your time, regardless of who they are to you. Anyone who is a real friend to you will support you if it makes you happy, they won't turn their backs on you just because they don't like it. If they do, then you don't need them in your life."
"Exactly, they should respect your decisions to trust him. You clearly know the family on a more personal level than they do, which means you know the truths about them. If they can't accept that then to hell with them, you'll always have Kyle and me." Chris pulls me to him, enveloping me into his arms.
Letting out a shaky breath, I grip him tighter, "Thank you. For everything you two have ever done for me. I really don't know what I would do without you."
"You'll never have to worry about that. We aren't going anywhere." Chris says with a kiss to my forehead.
Closing my eyes to keep the tears at bay, "I know. You two will always be in my life."
The lie in that statement hitting me harder than anything that's happened lately, they wouldn't always be in my life. Eventually they'll realize I haven't aged, that they're getting older and I'm staying the same. I'll have to say goodbye to them. I'll have to leave them behind, I'll live eternity without my best friends. Without my big brothers there to watch over me and keep me from harm.
I've been happy about this whole situation, never finding fault in any of it. I mean I get a soul mate, a family out of it, but I'm losing family too. Losing two people who mean the world to me.
How do you say goodbye to your best friend? How do you let that go, knowing that they're going to live out their life wondering what happened to you. Wondering why you disappeared, why the goodbye had to be permanent.
Not even realizing I started to cry until I hear, "Oh Livy, calm down. You're all right, let it out. It's perfectly fine to cry."
I open my eyes to look at their faces, concern for me shining through clearly. Managing a small smile on my lips, I shake my head, "I'm fine. Honest. It's just…overwhelming, but I'll figure it all out."
"Come on," Chris stands up, bringing me with him, "I'm taking you home. You need to sleep because you probably haven't been getting much with all of this going on."
Hugging Kyle tightly I kiss his cheek, "I'll be back to visit soon."
Standing in Chris' kitchen I look out the window, watching the sunrise over the buildings. It's peaceful, the city, this early in the morning. Everything starting over, a brand new day, a brand new beginning. I barely slept last night, thoughts of having to say goodbye plaguing my mind. Instead I just laid there, cuddled into Chris, relishing in the safety of it all. The normalcy of it of out friendship, I could be me here. I didn't have to worry about the people around me dying, or keeping information from me. I could be seventeen here.
"Coffee?" I offer him as I hear him come into the kitchen behind me.
"You and the coffee," He laughs, but pours himself a cup. "When are you heading home?"
"After lunch." I smile at him.
A/N-To help clear up any confusion on when I post, I post every week. Usually it's on Sunday, though it could be anywhere from Saturday-Monday that a new chapter will go up.
JokerMidnight-I absolutely love that you enjoy this story so much. As for the sacrifice and Jenna…you'll have to wait and see what happens. We're still a few chapters away from that happening so I can't give too much away.
Thank you to everyone who has subscribed to this story! And to all those who have taken the time to comment your thoughts and encouragements, thank you so much. It means a lot to me that people are enjoying this, especially since it's the first one that I've written in about four years. I'm a little rusty, but I try to make sure the chapters are a decent length each time. Hopefully, this makes up for the last chapter being a tad short.