AN: Another request from the lovely Siberia21, I'm going in chapter order,
also Angela, I'm down with the coma fic, it might be a few days until I can start, I need to do two more of these and wrap up North Star. Don't push yourself, focus on getting better. Heroine will likely be an open fic for a while, guys. If you have any suggestions for heroines you want to see, let me know!
The first song mentioned in this chapter is Oceans by Seafret, the next is Consequence by the Notwist. It doesn't matter if you listen to them, but it does help.
After the heating gets fixed, Elena visits him less often. It's not a big deal, except her habit of being closer is recent. He wonders what he did. Or if she just needs her space. He doesn't ask about it, if she wants him to know, she'll tell him. She does come in, a month later when it's storming, it's so intense that the house feels like it's shaking. It's not, but it's enough to have her seek his company. He sees her rub the sleep out of her eyes singlehandedly, a book in the other while standing in his doorway.
"Can I stay with you until the storm's over?" She asks, and he nods.
"Of course." She's welcome to come and go as she wants. So he moves a book that's on what he refers to as her side to his nightstand and she slips under the covers, and sits a little more relaxed than he is.
She wishes she could play music to drown it out, but doesn't know if Elijah would like that, he's reading something in Latin. Or maybe it's German. She takes a peek.
"What are you reading?" She asks, as lightning cracks.
"A Swedish legal document for someone I sired a few centuries ago." He tells her, and she looks at the writing on the paper.
"I'm to go make tea. Do you want anything?" She asks, deciding that maybe tea will make her sleepy.
"A cup of tea would be lovely, if it's not a bother." He says and she grins at him.
"Of course not." She answers, looking at her book one last time, before closing it. She leaves the room, and he hears something as she does. Music. He stops and listens to it.
It's a song about love, and wanting and Elena sings to it as he hears her move around, making tea. It loops again, and it reminds him of the rain. She changes the song when it ends a second time, to a slower one. It's perfect for the rain, he feels his mood change a little as he closes his eyes. He hears Elena moving, and the door opens.
"Elijah?" Her voice is soft, a whisper above the rain.
"I'm awake." He replies, and opens an eye.
"Good." She says, and she hands him a mug of tea.
She has her own, and she sets it down, carefully before she gets into the position she was in before she left. She sits up a little bit more, he notices. She blows on her tea before she picks it up again, and requests he tell her a story.
He never tells her stories unless she asks, and he wonders if she knows that he'd only tell her his stories and memories, his slightly too realistic to be tall tales and rememberings.
He takes a sip of tea, and tells her that he'll tell her about rain, when he was human. Her breath catches. He rarely talks of his time as a human, and she focuses to remember this story especially. He tells her of the times Rebekah would complain when it suddenly rained, flowers she was so fond of putting in her hair would wither, and he'd help her take them out. Sometimes Finn did it, trying his best to be patient with his younger siblings, Finn never had to try with Henrik.
He tells her of the many hunts he went on, how miserable it was when wet. When he pauses, she asks him what he looked like as a human.
He describes his hair, he knows that's what she's always noticed on him. He doesn't mention how his smile changed, or how odd it felt to be frozen in his body, to never look aged. He doesn't mention his eyes or how his feet appreciate modern shoes.
"I can't-I can't picture that." She admits and he gives her a genuine smile. If she was alive then, she would have charmed anyone she met. He wonders briefly, if she would have liked him as a human.
"I'm sure Niklaus has drawings of me somewhere. I'll ask him for one."
"So, Klaus has just-drawn you all throughout the centuries?" She asks, and he laughs at her tone.
"Yes. We were the subjects of many, long and arduous family portraits." He informs her. Finn always had to be added in, he remembers. The rain is slowing down, he notes, so he tells her stories of the portraits. At one point, they had all been together, he tells her. Hunters came in one day, mid portrait to his brother's displeasure. They had to listen to him complain about the blood splatters as he continued painting. Kol had sworn he had gone even slower after that, as punishment. Elijah didn't disagree.
"So, did he do one when you were all back together? That night with-" She trails off and he appreciates it. He doesn't know what to call Esther either. She drinks as he talks.
"Indeed. Everyone besides me had to change. Afterward, he took a picture and Kol and Rebekah complained for thirty minutes that a picture was much easier. I had to explain centuries of inventions to Finn, Kol, Rebekah and Esther that night. Klaus didn't help, claimed he was adding "finishing touches." He just didn't want to explain how microwaves work to Kol." He tells her and Elena smiles. The rain is stopped, and it's rather late, he notes. Elena yawns.
"Thank you." She says, taking a sip of her tea.
"You're welcome." He says, and she hasn't touched her book since she closed it, and her empty mug sits nearby it.
"Goodnight, Elijah." She says, she's too tired to move back to her bed, and Elijah has the lighting the way she likes it, and she sinks down, her head hits the pillow and she's out. She doesn't hear him wish her good dreams, but she does have a few drawings of Elijah throughout the centuries on her dresser when she goes to her room the next afternoon, copies he'll tell her later. Klaus didn't trust the original copies with the mail system.
She just smiles at them.