Thank you all for such nice reviews, it was really uplifting to read all the things said. I am so so so happy you like the story. This chapter was written with you Klamille lovers in mind.
Chapter Five: Residence
She was floating in space for the longest time. Her body felt weightless, painless, drifting into nowhere. She was weary yet she couldn't feel anything at all. Strange. Was she dreaming? She struggled to open her eyes but couldn't muster the energy to do that. Was she dead? There was something nagging at the back of her mind and she tried to recall what happened, but couldn't. A voice in her head kept saying she was going to be alright, that nothing would harm her again, and she felt so warm and comfortable, she knew without a doubt, that it was true. She stopped trying to worry about things and just relaxed her body.
Much later, she felt her body landing on something soft and comfortable. She imagined bouncing off a cloud and smiled to herself. Perhaps this was heaven. It felt nice. Perhaps she could see Sean. And Kieran. Her parents. She got excited at the thought of being with them once more. They'd all left her, left her fending for herself, left her feeling so lonely. It's been so long, that she felt pure elation at the prospect of being able to see them once more.
She felt someone gently touching her arm, and she realized she could finally open her eyes.
A figure was poised above her, and for one moment, before her eyes had even adjusted to the light, she thought it was an angel waking her up to let her know she could enter the pearly gates. She smiled up at him, readying herself for his speech.
As her vision cleared, she belatedly realized that it was no angel, but Klaus Mikaelson' face above her own.
She blinked again. Nope, definitely not an angel.
"Cami, can you hear me?" he asked softly.
She nodded, not knowing how to feel as she realized this wasn't really the afterlife, and the hope of seeing her family was now diminished into nothing. Her first musings took her aback, making her question whether she really wanted to die that badly.
If she had wanted to die, wouldn't she have let that strange man kill her? If she had wanted to die, wouldn't she have stood there without doing anything? No, Camille O'Connell wanted to live. Even if there was no one there to save her, she had fought her way back into life. And here she was, badly hurt, but still alive.
Klaus spoke again, holding what looked to be a towel in his hand. "There is quite a bit of blood on your face, love," he said, hand tentatively hovering over her face, as if waiting for her permission before touching her.
She nodded once more. As she became more conscious, she realized that the mere act of moving her head made her feel more bone-tired than ever. She could sense parts of her body that were bruised badly, as if a car had just rammed straight through her. And wait, didn't she get stabbed? With a feeling of rising panic, her hand shakily went to the part of her chest she thought was sliced open.
"Your injuries should be healed," he commented, wiping the dried blood off her face as carefully as he could.
"How?" she asked, her voice raspy.
"You were bleeding much too fast from the knife wound, and at that time, I proceeded with what I thought to be the best course of action. I gave you my blood to speed up your healing."
There was silence as she took this in.
He went on, "Unless you die within the next couple of days, and I assure you there is no chance of that happening now that you are under my roof, everything should be fine."
"Thank you. For saving me."
"I received your call earlier and attempted calling you back. Once you didn't answer, I knew something was wrong. You, who have always waited for me to be the one to call, would never call me unplanned, much less call me at that ungodly hour, my instincts told me you must have been in trouble, and I was right. You would have bled to death on that floor if I hadn't come."
She winced as he brushed over a particularly sore spot on her face. "Is he dead?"
"If he weren't the first time you killed him, he is very much so now." he uttered in quiet anger.
He dropped the wash cloth and looked at her. "Your shirt needs to be changed," he stated, motioning to her gruesomely blood-stained pajama top. She shuddered as she recalled the events just hours ago, the violent spurting of blood from her attacker's neck on her face and shirt before she lost all consciousness.
Klaus helped her sit up on the bed, and on autopilot, her hands went to the top button to undo it. They trembled so badly it took her a solid minute to even remove the first one. She was reaching for the next set when he stopped her, wordlessly reaching for the buttons himself.
She stared up at him in surprise as he slowly undid the buttons of her stained top.
His fingers were clinical, efficient, careful not to touch anything but her clothes, but Klaus wasn't really looking at what his hands were doing. He was gazing at her face instead, and the way he stared into her eyes as each button came undone unsettled her.
His face was so close to hers, that she felt his hot breath on her face, saw how truly blue those eyes were. For a second, she wanted to reach out and tenderly cup his cheek in her hand, wanted to reach out and pull him even closer. Instead she merely sat as still as statue, unconsciously holding her breath, aware of each tiny movement of his hands in the process of undressing her.
She finally felt those long fingers brush against the last set of buttons, and with one last look, he stepped back and handed her one of his plain white shirts. She finally breathed easily.
He turned around to give her privacy, and she removed the blood-soaked garment from her body, thankful she could now change into something clean. Each movement caused her to wince, and once again, she felt the soreness in every muscle. Her body was completely healed of all open wounds thanks to the vampire blood, but it was still bruised from the falls she took.
She was fixing the shirt around herself when she finally took notice of where she was. Once again, he'd put her in his bedroom, making her feel guilty about occupying somebody else's space.
"Klaus…" she started, as he turned back to her. "I'm occupying your…"
He silenced her by placing his hand on her shoulder and gently pushing her back until he'd laid her head down on the pillows. She wanted to ask him more questions. What about the body? What about her neighbors? What about her apartment? She had work... she had a class in the morning...
He must have seen all the worries clearly stamped on her face because he reached out to squeeze her arms in a reassuring manner and say, "Rest. Everything will be taken care of. Trust me."
Did she trust him? Did she trust him to take care of all of her worries? Did she completely trust him to make things right in her life?
She found, as she began to drift off to sleep, that the answer was now a resounding yes.
…
As daybreak came, Elijah Mikaelson stealthily entered the compound with a speed undetectable to the human eye.
He had gotten a call over an hour ago from his brother with very specific instructions. Niklaus' tone was quite grave, leading Elijah to believe that whatever needed to be done had to be acted upon as urgently as possible. Niklaus had hung up on him as soon as he uttered five sentences. Elijah quickly got up to dress, and the beautiful woman sleeping in his bed gently stirred. He gave her a soft kiss on the cheek and softly spoke to let her know he had something pressing to attend to.
Normally Elijah would have been irked at his demands so early in the morning, but the urgency in Niklaus' voice made him get into action. He had not felt the need to ask any further questions. Not up until forty minutes ago, when he discovered the bloody scenario in Camille's apartment.
Now here he was, back from his little trip. Other lesser immortals would have taken longer to do the task at hand, but Elijah had quite the experience in dealing with clean-ups. He entered the compound's foyer and found Niklaus already seated at the head of the table waiting for him, hands folded together in a deceptively calm manner.
"Is it done?" he asked.
Elijah nodded. "I have compelled the neighbors that woke up about the noise. Fortunately no one had spotted the headless body lying in the middle of the street yet. Both that and the head thrown carelessly in Camille's fireplace have been disposed of. The landlord was... quite easy to persuade to tidy up her apartment."
Niklaus said nothing and merely nodded.
Elijah continued. "I have not asked questions when you've required my assistance so late in the night, Niklaus, but this was quite a bit of an overkill, even for you. Two cursed stars lodged on the neck. Heart openly ripped out from the chest. Head completely severed, a tad grotesque, might I add. Was all this violence necessary to kill one particular human?"
His brother's jaw clenched and for a moment Elijah thought Niklaus would not deign him with an answer.
He eventually did. "When I got there, he had stabbed her on the chest. Not an instantaneously fatal one, but enough to make her in pain for hours and eventually die. His trousers were undone, the bloody bastard was going to force himself on her while she bled to death. If she hadn't held on to those dark objects of Kieran's… I would have quite possibly been too late."
He was silent as he digested this. Suddenly, the excessive use of force to kill felt justified.
His brother spoke once more, "Did you find out who it was?"
"I am waiting for more information, of course. It would not hurt for you to give me more time, his face was barely recognizable after your butchering. Perhaps Camille knows. We might as well ask her."
"Do not, Elijah, unless she wants to speak to you about it, I beg of you not to pester her about what happened."
Elijah looked at him in surprise. "I'd have thought the protection spell that you had the witch place months ago would work."
His brother's mouth set into a grim line. "As did I. Apparently the bloody witch only did a spell to prevent the supernatural from getting in. It says nothing about humans. I should rip her heart out for not even thinking of this complication."
"Was this human your enemy or hers?"
"Quite possibly mine. I do not know. No human should want to harm her unless it was a spurned suitor."
Elijah said nothing, knowing to comment on that possibility would be a grave error on his part.
"I cannot allow her to go back to live by herself," Niklaus finally said.
"And where is she to stay?"
"Here. With us," he said with a finality that brooked no further arguments.
…
She was dreaming of being chased by a masked man with a knife, and she felt the panic in her dream. Felt her inevitable demise. She was running for such a long time, it felt like forever until she'd fallen into a pit, and with a sudden jolt, she woke up.
Her eyes adjusted to the pitch black room, and she felt momentarily disoriented by the unfamiliar surroundings. After a couple of seconds of breathing hard in nervousness, she remembered she was in the Mikaelson compound. She tried to recall the series of events in her head to calm herself down. Klaus had carried her from her apartment to here. The man that tried to kill her was dead. She had been asleep for hours, until it was nightfall once more. And now she was alone in the room, there should be no danger to her. So why was she illogically feeling afraid still?
"Klaus?" she called out, trying to keep her anxiety down. "Klaus?"
He came at once, and she felt, more than saw, his presence in the room.
"I'm…" she trembled, unable to voice her feelings out.
I'm scared.
He turned the lights on and saw her shivering on the bed, and seeing the genuine fear in her eyes, reached out without hesitation and held her as her tremors subsided.
"I killed a man," she said out loud. "It just hit me now that I… just killed a man." She laughed wildly. "This all must seem stupid to you."
"Killing is never stupid," he said, his face grim. "There are evils in this world, Cami. Evils I prefer you would not have been introduced to, but it is much too late for that. You have set certain things in motion in your life the minute we made each other's acquaintance. The blame lies entirely on me."
She looked at him, taken aback at the regret in his voice. "You've compelled me to leave before, but I chose to stay. It's always been my choice to be involved."
"Has it?"
She said nothing.
He spoke once more, "Do you remember what you told me before? That people are inherently good?"
"I still believe that."
He looked at her expectantly, eyebrows raised.
"This man, he was the brother of Jane Ann and Sophie Devereaux. He was born into a witch family but he didn't have the gift. He was cast out. The only people who have probably been good to him all his life were his sisters, and he heard they were dead. I can't imagine how broken he was. Like me, he came back to his hometown to find out why their deaths were so gruesome. He came back and found the French Quarter overrun by the Original family."
"And he jumped to conclusions that it was us, and not the bloody witch coven."
"He was good, perhaps. He just had a reason…"
Klaus stood up in barely concealed ire. "Do not even think of even defending this man, Camille. Before you take this burden of a lifetime of guilt on your shoulders, have you stopped and thought of what he did? If he was hell-bent on serving revenge against vampires or werewolves or the damned witches, that's where he should have went first! Did he do that? Of course not, because he was a spineless coward who preyed on the weak.. He chose to attack one who cannot defend themselves. One who had absolutely nothing to do with this squabble. He chose to attack you. Or did you forget that part, because I am more than willing to remind you of what happened."
She stared at him, her eyes filled with disquiet.
Klaus went on, pacing the room in irritation. "I am sorely happy you killed him, I am sorely happy he is dead, and I wish to heavens he is rotting down in the fiery fires of eternal damnation! I would kill him a thousand times over if I could. Do not even think of justifying his actions to me-"
"You're right," she said, interrupting him.
"-when you know as well as I… I'm what?" he stopped, looking at her, stunned at her admittance.
"You're right. I was justifying his actions. In the end, he was just a coward. He called me… things." She stared ahead, repeating it to herself. "You're right. He did deserve to die."
Klaus sat down on the chair next to her bed, took her hand and said, "He did. You did well fighting for your life. He would have preyed on somebody else had he succeeded with you."
"Has it always been easy for you?"
"What has?"
"Deciding whose life to end and whose life to spare? How do you know if what you did is right?"
He looked at her in surprise. "I have not really thought about it."
"You're a little too old not to have thought of some things, aren't you?" she said, oddly curious about that.
"I rarely think of human lives. They are merely the means to an end," he said, shrugging.
"i don't think I could ever reach that point in my life. I still keep seeing his face in my head."
"Well you are human, love," he commented dryly. His face suddenly became serious. "It will pass. The first time is always the hardest."
"I don't want to think there will be other times, Klaus."
"Just keep this in mind. There will always be necessary evils that we must do in this world. Evils that we must perform to survive, evils that we must do to keep a balance. You did one of them tonight because you had no choice. It was your life or his. That is all it was, and life will continue to go on."
"That doesn't mean I won't be having dreams about it. I can't imagine being in my room again without picturing what happened last night."
He cleared his throat. "I've decided it is best if you stay here for the meantime."
"What?"
"We've cast a protection spell around your house but it does not work against humans. Only supernaturals."
"When? Why didn't I know?"
"We did it a long time ago, as a precaution. You are no longer safe there. While Elijah and I check to see if any long lost witchy relatives are still seeking revenge, it would be safer for you to be here at the compound."
"I don't think that's a good idea."
He clasped her arms and looked straight into her eyes. "Last night, I went inside your apartment, took one look at you lying there, and thought you have joined the dearly departed. Now forgive me if I tell you that this is not up for discussion. I care not to take any more chances."
Live here? With them? Could she do that? She thought about going back to her apartment, of being by herself, knowing anybody could come in. She shuddered inwardly and tried not to let the anxiety take over.
"Okay," she said, conceding. "But only temporarily."
He looked as if he was about to contradict her and then just exhaled sharply.
"I don't want to inconvenience anybody," she said reluctantly.
"You will not, I assure you."
"Where will I stay? You need your room back."
"There are a dozen vacant guestrooms in this compound. We can iron out the details tomorrow. In the meantime, you need to get more rest."
She nodded and he made a move to leave.
"Klaus?" she called, waiting for him to turn around. "I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For condemning you before for wanting to kill those who wanted to hurt you. Because truthfully, I've never been in that situation. I had no right to judge. Now that I have, I realize that in the end, I will always choose to save myself, to want to end those that would hurt me. Like you."
He smiled humorlessly. "Only the difference between us, love, is that after disposing of my enemies, I will fall asleep at night while you will not."
"I don't believe that all."
"You think me better than I actually am."
"You mean to tell me every death by your hand has been an easy decision to make?"
There was a moment of silence as a dark look passed his face. For a moment, Cami thought he was going to give her a scathing response.
He merely turned off the lamp and said "Good night, Camille," a note of dismissal in his voice as he walked out the door.
"Good night, Klaus," she whispered in the dark.
….
The next morning, Cami had woken up to a pitcher of water by her bedside and a plateful of fresh fruits and delicate-looking pastries. Unless the Mikaelson compound was hiding some house elves, she had a strong suspicion it was Klaus who had left it there before she had woken up.
She'd drank almost all the water like a woman dying of thirst, and forced down some of the fruit and bread so she could get some of her energy back. She felt more refreshed as soon as she broke her fast, and started gingerly testing out her muscles. Everything seemed to be fine except for just a little soreness and dizziness in her head, and she wondered whether that was the vampire blood still running in her veins, or just merely too much action in her normally boring life this week.
She finally was able to stand up and explore a little bit. She went to the master bath that connected to Klaus' bedroom and smiled as soon as she saw how impressive it was. It was large, luxurious, and completely over the top, laid out from floor to ceiling in beautiful dark gray stones, equipped with a spacious walk-in shower and a beautiful black tub made of marble that could easily fit two people.
Normally she'd jump at the chance to take a bath in such a thing of beauty. After all, when did a poor bartender like her get to experience these things? But then the last thing she wanted to be was intrusive with using someone else's bathroom. The last thing she wanted was to overstay her welcome. She made a decision to use the shower instead.
Hurriedly taking off her clothes, she turned the shiny knobs of the shower to check out all of the settings before stepping in. It was completely gorgeous with its huge ceiling shower head, sprinkling her with the warmest, most comfortable water setting she'd ever experienced. It felt like getting soaked on a rainy summer day. She took a look around, enjoying her surroundings. Did she mention there were no cockroaches here? It sure beat taking a shower in her tiny bathroom. At least one thing could be said about the original family, is that they knew how to live.
Taking a clean washcloth from one of his built-in racks, she poured one of those expensive manly-smelling body washes he had and started scrubbing herself. She couldn't help but close her eyes and sigh, enjoying the moment of finally being clean and feeling the warm water trickling down her body.
She was almost done rinsing when she felt that familiar tingling sensation at the back of her neck.
A prickle, more like. The same one she felt at Elijah's place when she trained with him. She tensed up, her eyebrows furrowing with worry. Strange. Could she be feeling extremely paranoid after what happened? Was there someone watching her?
Slowly, she turned. And wished she hadn't.
For a moment, she thought she was imagining things, and she blinked once as if to dispel the mirage before her. But he neither moved nor disappeared.
Klaus.
It really was him standing by the door, gazing at her, less than ten feet from where she stood naked as the day she was born.
There was an inscrutable expression on his face as he stared, and her frazzled heart jumped to her throat, clumsy hands fumbling and dropping the washcloth. Inwardly she wanted to scream and duck for cover, but it was already too late.
For a split second, their eyes met, her green ones in shock and those normally unreadable blue ones rapidly turning stormy.
Without saying anything, he walked out, fists clenched, leaving her in stunned horror, water swirling around her feet and towards the shower drain.
….
After that unfortunate incident of Klaus accidentally coming in and finding her using his shower, she moved as if in a dream, going through the motions without really knowing what she was doing. She helped herself to his clean white towels, wrapped one around her wet body, got another one, folded it thickly right against her face, and without further ado, just screamed against it.
Thankfully the thick cloth muffled all the inhuman noises she was making. Once she vented out her emotions and took the deepest breath she could possibly take, she went out, stepping into his room once more, and rummaged through his drawers for some clothes she could use while she figured out a way to get her own.
She found a plain gray shirt that looked too unstylish for him to ever use, some matching sweatpants and decided to "borrow" those. She figured Klaus would be ok with her using these since they looked like something he wouldn't be caught dead in. She hurriedly dressed herself, the fear of getting found naked for a second time in a row now tattooed permanently in her mind.
She was toweling her hair dry when she suddenly heard a knock on the door of his room.
Yes, knocking is always a good idea. It's not like he wasn't around when that was invented.
She quickly crossed the room to open the double doors, feeling nervous on who it could be. She experienced some difficulty pulling the huge doors apart, that by the time she found Elijah standing outside, his normally stoic face already had a note of sourness on it.
"Finally," he said. "That only took you, oh, about eighty-four years."
"That should be all about two minutes for a relic like you then," she retorted.
"Touche. Well, I for one, am glad to see you are still with the living, Camille. I would have hated to lose my worst student."
"I am your only student, Elijah. Nobody else can stand you."
"Consider me deeply hurt."
"Consider me happy about that."
With their usual insults out of the way, his voice took on a serious note, "I saw the body." He nodded at her, as if in approval.
"That was mostly Klaus."
"He did get there with the man already dead."
"I… I didn't really get to do everything you taught. I wish I could have, it probably would have been less painful, but when you're in that actual situation, you can't really think about what to do, can you? You can only react."
He looked at her sharply. "If you are a supernatural, you would have more time to think, more time to strategize how to defend yourself. Time moves much more slowly for us when adrenaline is rushing through our bodies."
"What are you saying, Elijah?"
"You have vampire blood coursing through your veins."
She stared at him, unable to comprehend if he was really broaching this topic. "I…"
"Of course, it is entirely your choice," he shrugged, as if they were just talking about something as nonchalant as favorite foods, instead of the possibility of her turning into a vampire. "I am just pointing it out it if you ever did want to…"
"No," she said, suddenly shaking at being confronted with this. "No, I don't think so."
He stared closely at her, much too closely, as if he knew everything that was running through her mind at that exact moment. As if he knew what the only reason she would even consider turning herself into one.
After a long bout of silence which made her too uncomfortable under his scrutiny, he finally nodded and let the subject slide.
"Your landlord was… kind enough to procure some of your possessions and bring it here. I have had him carry it all in the room you are to stay in. Do you want me to show you?"
She nodded, relieved at the change of the subject.
….
Her room, as it turned out, was located all the way to the other wing of the compound. She was pleased about this fact. It meant she'd have more privacy, away from the main wing which held Klaus', Elijah's and Hayley's rooms. It meant if they had some kind of showdown family drama, she could just simply stay safely tucked in her part of the house without getting involved in the awkwardness.
The walls of her room were a sunny yellow, housing a lovely white queen bed decorated with textured white and yellow throws. By the foot of the bed was a matching white loveseat and a small coffee table. Two drawers in dark wood flanked the bedside, both with antique lamps on top. Cream curtains were pulled back hanging from the two sides of the room's large windows, and a huge painting was placed on the other windowless wall. The rich hardwood floors were covered with a large oriental rug with its yellow, cream, and green tones, and there were big potted plants in the two corners of her room. It was half the size of the master bedroom, but the sunlight streamed unobstructed through her windows, making it much brighter and airier than the rest of the rooms she'd been in the compound.
"Unfortunately there is no en-suite, you would have to make do with the bathroom outside, but that is solely yours," Elijah stated.
"It's perfect," she breathed, giving him a huge smile. "Did you do this?"
"Of course not. This was Niklaus. He has an obsession with decorating rooms, it must be that…" he waved his hand dismissively, "artiste side."
"It's positively lovely," she said, imagining being able to read a book with all that natural light streaming in the room.
He looked at her with distaste, taking care to aristocratically eye her ill-fitting clothes up and down. "Well, we both know your tastes are a tad bit... unrefined."
"Oh, shut up, Elijah."
….
She immediately moved into her new space the same hour Elijah showed it to her. It was the perfect size and feel. While bigger rooms made her feel uncomfortable with all that unnecessary space, this simple room with its bright and cheery feel, was just right.
Her landlord had thankfully included some books with her belongings. That must have been by Elijah's compulsion because her landlord looked like he never would crack a book open of his own free will. She decided to just stay in today and catch up on some reading, calling in at work and letting them know she had come down with something. Hopefully that would buy her some time until she felt things were back to normal.
As she stretched out her feet and turned to the first page of her novel, it briefly crossed her mind how strange the situation she was. Here she was, a grown woman, but she was under someone else's roof. And not just someone else, but Klaus Mikaelson, original hybrid, sometimes kind, sometimes a jerkward. A man she was beginning to recognize that she had feelings for. She had been hesitant about the whole thing, thinking it was a bad idea, and the only reason she had agreed to it last night was because she felt the fear of going back to her apartment, living on her own, and getting attacked once more.
Now she was second-guessing if what she did was right. She didn't know whether to be thrilled at the prospect that she was living in the same place as him, or depressed because she knew it in her heart that this was going to be one-sided and result in a lot of hurt.
And to add insult to injury, he saw her naked this morning.
As if the entire situation couldn't get any worse. She sighed, took one of the big throws from her bed, and muffled her screams against it one more time.
….
"It is quite unseemly to be peeping on guests at this time of the night, Niklaus," Elijah commented, walking in his brother's room without so much as a sound.
He only had a view of his brother's back as he stared out his window, but he could imagine the intensive eye-rolling that was happening as of the moment.
He went on, "Is she aware that you have a perfect vantage point from your window to hers?"
"Elijah, if you have come here for the sole purpose of annoying me, consider it a job well done."
Elijah chose to ignore him and went rifling through his brother's papers and books, thinking he'd again stolen one of Elijah's more valuable books. While searching, he casually stated, "I asked her today if she wanted to be turned."
He sensed his brother grow deathly still at his statement. He turned towards Elijah, jaw clenched tightly, "You what?"
"She had your blood running through her body. I have to admit, I was curious to know what she would tell me. Do not tell me you are not…"
"How dare you!"
He raised his eyebrows. "How dare I? Would it not be easier for all of us if she did turn?"
His brother paced the room in anger. "You forget yourself! It is my blood, Elijah. Mine. My blood, my choice, my..." he trailed off.
"Your what? She is not yours to do with as you please."
"But she is mine to protect," he stated, trembling with anger. "If you turn her…"
Niklaus paused, lost in thought, as if considering all the possibilities, if he had not already done so. Elijah presumed he had already thought of all of this. Of course he would have. He could never be one step ahead of him. If he had a sliver of thought, he would be pretty certain that Niklaus had already considered it, dissected it, and already found holes in that thought. For him to not even think about the prospect of turning Camille into a vampire, of siring her, was quite impossible.
He did not know what was stopping Niklaus though. He could never understand it. She was here, already involved in their affairs. It would be safer to make her into one of them and welcome her into the family. She would be rid of her slow, clumsy human body, and she would be stronger as a vampire, she would be able to defend herself.
Most importantly, they had Camille's loyalty. She had a brave warrior's heart, it was not even a question of who she would side with, who she would fight for.
Out of the corner of his eye, he finally saw Niklaus move, sighing deeply, briefly closing his eyes and opening them again, as if in pain.
"Elijah, do not even think of turning her."
"Why?"
"Because if you turn her, you will destroy the most beautiful thing about her. And I will forever despise you for it."
….
It was well past dinner time when she went out of her room. She felt like she was hiding, and that was probably in some ways, true. She wasn't really looking forward to seeing Klaus after their last interaction. Had her stomach not been growling with hunger, she could have waited ten years until she no longer felt embarrassed by the mere recollection of it. She thought longingly of getting a mini-fridge in her side of the compound. Maybe she could work that in somehow. This was exactly the problem of living with other people, that she constantly had to interact with them, whether she wanted to or not.
She sighed as her stomach growled once more, thinking she had to find the kitchen soon or she would become a raving lunatic from the hunger. Gathering her courage, she cautiously opened her door and peeked out. Seeing no one right outside her door, she padded from her room towards the main wing of the house, careful not to run into anyone and be as quiet as possible.
Unfortunately for her, the kitchen lights were turned off, and she bumped her hip on a bar stool with a loud "oof". To which after, she accidentally stubbed her toe on the trashcan, releasing an expletive that would have her mother spinning in her grave.
Her eyes finally adjusted to the outline of the fridge. Bingo! She opened the door, the light from the fridge illuminating the room.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure sitting in the corner, causing her to give out a yelp of surprise.
"You are loud enough to wake the dead, love," came Klaus' voice from the corner.
Her heart started beating a hundred times a minute, and she calmed down enough to reach for the light switch on the wall. She found him seated on one of the bar stools, brooding in the corner with a large bottle of whiskey.
"Would turning on the lights kill you?" she asked annoyed. It was the first time she'd seen him after the shower incident, and her stupid heart wasn't slowing down anytime soon, making her cranky.
"I assumed you knew I was here, seeing as you weren't trying to be quiet at all," he said sardonically.
"I was trying to be stealthy, it's just dark," she reasoned, sounding like a petulant child even to her ears.
"I'm afraid to see what being loud to you means like then."
"And I… am going to ignore that because I'm hungry."
He motioned his hands for her to go ahead and open the fridge and without further ado, she did, helping herself to a wedge of cheese, some fruit and beer. She grabbed a box of crackers she found lurking on the counter and sat beside him, contentedly munching.
He glanced sideways at her, apparently perturbed she was starving. "Cami, consider this your home as well. I don't know if Elijah has told you this, but you have access to any part of the house as you please."
"Elijah? All I remember was him critiquing my taste in decorations. And fashion choices," she said sadly, looking down at her baggy gray attire.
"Well you know Elijah and his everlasting love affair with the mirror, you won't find him in sweats." He downed the contents of his glass, and it was with care he spoke when he asked her the next question. "Did you like the room?"
"I did, very much so. It was perfect," she said, giving him a genuine smile. It was true, seeing the room made her happy.
He looked surprised at the expression that lit up her face, and couldn't help but give her a small smile as well. "I thought you would."
He refilled his glass and took another generous swig of the whiskey. She, in the meantime, opened her bottle of beer, attempting to slow down her chewing lest she do another embarrassing thing like choke from too much food or something equally stupid.
He set his glass down, seemingly just glaring at it wordlessly. She noticed the nape of his neck was quite flushed, and she wondered exactly how much he'd had to drink.
"Klaus, you…"
"Earlier I intruded on your privacy. I didn't expect you to have been moving around so soon, is all," he said gravely, staring intently at the glass in his hand.
She blushed at his acknowledgement of the earlier situation and drank her beer, trying to wet her dry throat. "I… you have a very beautiful bathroom, I couldn't help myself."
He suddenly murmured, "I could say the same thing for something else right now."
"What?"
Instead of answering her, he drank more of his whiskey, looking much like a man trying to drown his sorrows. She wondered what was plaguing him this time.
He started, "When you asked me last night, Cami, if every death by my hand has been an easy decision to make…"
"Yes, I remember," she said.
"I had to kill my father to protect Hope."
Her brow furrowed in confusion. "Which father?"
"My real father, Ansel. If you will recall, I was borne of a tryst between my mother and her werewolf lover. My mother resurrected him from the dead in hope that spending time with my real father would tempt me to live the life I was supposed to live, before we were all turned into the monstrosities we are today."
She looked at him in alarm. "And you ended up killing him?"
"It had to be done. He knew too much about Hope. I could not trust him with the news that my daughter was alive, knowing he could betray me anytime to Esther. I would never have forgiven myself if I had allowed him to live, if my heart was so soft as to allow him in my life. I never would have forgiven myself if, by my own folly, something happened to my daughter."
Her heart went out to him. For him to make that choice between saving his daughter and the chance to get to know his biological father, she couldn't imagine the agony he had to have gone through. She had met Mikael firsthand, had known the suffering Klaus had gone through growing up to be rejected by such a father. For him to get the chance to know the real one which should have been in his life in the first place, only to lose it once more, was probably one of the most painful things he had to endure.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"The important thing is protecting my child," he shrugged, turning his attention back to his drink. "That is all that matters, nothing else."
"I see," she said.
He turned to her suddenly. "Do you? Do you really understand what a risk it is to let someone else in?" He looked in her eyes with such intimacy, and she knew then that they were no longer talking about Ansel.
Do you really understand what a risk it is to let someone else in?
She felt her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach, and wanted to answer him. Wanted to tell him, yes, she understood, completely, totally and utterly, the risk of being vulnerable to someone who could hurt you so easily. The trust you put in their hands for them to accept you as you wholly are, without judgement, without bias. The belief that they would never, even after years, turn around and use everything they know against you, to betray you. How could she not completely understand? She'd trusted one too many times, been burnt one too many times. It was the story of her life, believing in the goodness instead of choosing to see the evil.
She smiled ruefully. "We're all afraid, Klaus. Each and everyone of us. We're all afraid of getting hurt. But that's life, isn't it? Falling down and getting hurt. Loving, failing, hurting, hoping, betraying, trusting. It's a mess. It would probably be easier to just close off everyone else."
"It is for me."
"But you know what the downside of that way is?"
"What is the downside?"
"You miss out on the good stuff," she said, gazing at him warmly. She stood up, leaned towards him, and gave him the softest kiss on the cheek, so soft it felt like a whisper against his face.
"Good night, Klaus," she said tenderly.
She walked out of the kitchen, leaving a stunned Niklaus sitting there for quite some time.
….