Chapter five

Lost

11th century

"Kassie, why do you not like anyone?"

Peter looked up at her with wide eyes. Kassandra raised an eyebrow at him. "Who said such a thing?" she asked with light amusement.

"Henrik and I overheard girls in the village talking about you. They were saying how you were mean and bitter and unfriendly and did not like a single person in the village. Why don't you?" he asked her as they walked through the village, no destination in mind.

She bit her lip. "It is not that I do not like anyone, it is that people have the tendency to be stupid, and stupidity makes me mean and bitter and unfriendly," she said slowly. She really didn't want her brother to think her to be some surly, angry wench, but she didn't care to lie, especially to him.

"So you just don't like stupid people?" Peter asked, trying his best to keep up with her.

"Yes, I suppose you can see it that way," she agreed.

"Do you like me?" he asked.

Kassandra smirked slightly, eyes twinkling. "Were you not listening? I do not like stupid people."

"Hey!" he said and she laughed.

"I was only joking, little brother. Of course I like you," she said.

"Do you like mother?" Peter asked, calmed down by her words.

She nodded. "Mother is alright."

"Tatia?"

"She is my best and only friend- I like her about half the time."

Peter looked around for another person and his eyes settled on a tall, attractive man. "Elijah?"

Kassandra's eyebrows furrowed and she looked up. What a random person to ask. "Why Elijah?"

"Is he not one of Tatia's suitors?" he asked.

"Tatia has many suitors," Kassandra said dismissively.

"Just answer the question, Kassandra!" Peter whined and she sighed.

Elijah. Kassandra had spoken maybe three words to him her entire life. Yet she knew he was most likely a decent person. She was sure he truly did love Tatia and would be good to her. He was very good with Peter, who had come to look up to him as a big brother because of Henrik. Her hazel eyes found him through the crowd of people and then quickly looked away.

"There are worse people in this village than Elijah," she muttered finally. That was about the best compliment one could get out of Kassandra, and Elijah never knew he had gotten it.

Elijah and Kassandra walked in silence along the sidewalks of the city. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, though. For some reason she didn't know, Kassandra was very comfortable in Elijah's presence, and she was a person who tried to limit her contact with other people as much as possible.

"How long have you been in New York?"

Kassandra looked up, startled out of her thoughts. "Huh?" she asked stupidly. Elijah just smiled slightly.

"I asked you how long you've lived in New York," he said patiently.

"Oh." Kassandra's eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she tried to remember. "Well, I've been here for two years- this time. I've lived in New York a bunch of times throughout the years- especially in the twenties. This city's always been my favorite. I always come back here eventually."

"Why?" Elijah asked curiously.

She shrugged slightly. "I don't know, really. I just always find myself back here without really thinking about it. I guess I like the noise, the life. This city is just so alive and I feed off of it. I just always come back here, one way or another."

Elijah nodded, looking deep in thought as he walked. "Why are you here?" she asked him, looking up at him.

Elijah looked startled and confused as she brought him out of his thoughts. "Yes?" he asked.

"Why are you here, if you don't mind me asking?" she repeated not-so patiently. Kassandra wasn't a patient person.

"I'm not sure exactly," Elijah told her honestly. "I suppose I've always had a soft spot for this city, and just came here without any real thought."

"You're running from something," she observed with a slightly raised eyebrow. "From what, exactly?"

"I don't run Kassandra. I face my problems," Elijah told her.

Elijah didn't seem like the kind of person to run from things, but one thing Kassandra praised herself on was being able to read people. And everything she was able to read about Elijah was screaming at her that he was, in fact, running from something.

"Maybe you're just hiding then," she corrected herself. "Or maybe you're just lost." Her eyes widened and she nodded to herself. "That's it," she murmured. "You're lost."

Elijah sighed. "Maybe a little," he agreed.

Kassandra looked up at him. "There's nothing wrong with being lost, you know," she told him. "Hell, I've been lost the majority of my life. Besides, it's a lot easier to find something if you get lost first."

As a rule, Kassandra generally sucked at cheering people up. She sucked at sympathizing, at making them feel better. She wasn't friendly enough, charming enough. She just wasn't a people person, Kassandra. But she somehow managed to make Elijah feel a little less lost. Enough to get him to open up to the familiar stranger.

"My mother tried to kill me and my siblings two days ago," he announced bluntly.

Kassandra raised her eyebrows. She didn't know what to say to that. She didn't know what one could say to that. She did know that Esther had been up to something, though. She just never would have guessed that she would have been trying to kill her children.

"Esther is a total bitch," Kassandra said finally. "I always hated her."

Elijah smiled slightly. "You don't need to say things like that, Kassandra. I am fine without your pity."

"You think I'm pitying you?" she raised an eyebrow up at the original. "Honey, I don't care if you're one of the first of our kind. I don't do pity. I am not capable of pity. I am simply stating that your mother is the queen of the bitches, and trying to murder her children only proves that. If you mistake that as pity, well, that's your bad."

Elijah actually smiled down at her, and it reached his brown eyes. "In some strange way, I find your lack of thought before you speak charming," he told her.

"Well, you'd definitely be the first one to do so," Kassandra said. "Most people just find it offensive."

"Oh, I can see how people would find it that way," Elijah agreed. "I can see how people would find you offensive and rude and obnoxious. But there is definitely a charm to you, Kassandra."

She smiled slightly. "That is the sweetest thing anybody's ever said about me," she said with a slight smirk. It was a little sad because it was true.

"If you were a little less surly, people might find you more charming," Elijah told her as they turned a corner.

She shrugged. "Yeah, you're probably right."

11th century

"Don't touch me!" Kassandra hissed at the drunken village man who grabbed her arm. It was night and they were in a secluded part of the village.

The man ignored her and pulled her closer to him. His breath reeked of wine, and in general he smelled back. Kassandra beat on his shoulders, his arms, his chest. She tried to do everything she could to get away from him, but he was too strong for her.

Kassandra pursed her lips stared at the man. He gasped and clutched his head as he fell to his knees. She wasn't supposed to use her powers on innocent humans, but this man was hardly innocent.

"I told you not to touch me," she muttered as she turned to walk away back towards the celebration. She could really use some wine at that moment.

"You little bitch." The man grabbed her arm and twisted it painfully. She cried out, her eyes widening.

Then the man was off of her, thrown into a tree and knocked out by the impact. "Are you alright?" a deep voice, a concerned voice asked her.

Kassandra scowled up at Elijah. "I did not need your help," she muttered, rubbing her arm.

"I am sure you didn't," he replied as she stalked away.

Yes, there were worse people in the village than Elijah Mikaelson.

"You're breaking into a bar?"

"I'm not 'breaking in.' I have a key," Kassandra replied, fishing her key out of her pocket. "Besides, I think both of us could use some whiskey right now."

"It's seven in the morning," Elijah reminded her, as she unlocked the door to the bar.

"So? It's five o'clock somewhere," Kassandra said holding the door open for him. "After you, Elijah."

He sighed but walked into the bar. He and Kassandra had been talking for an hour, and she was already becoming a bad influence on him. Still, she was right. He really could have used a few shots of bourbon.

Kassandra turned on lights as she walked behind the bar. Then she pulled out a bottle of whiskey and started pouring shots. Elijah threw back a few of those shots, and she did the ones he didn't. By the next hour, both were tipsy if not reasonably drunk.

"Esther was right," Elijah blurted out as Kassandra swung around one of the wooden beams in the bar, the bottle of bourbon in her hand.

"Hmm?" she raised an eyebrow at him and stopped swinging.

"Morality, nobility… those are two things I always associated myself with. I even thought myself to be the best out of all my siblings. But I'm not. I still torture, kill, maim, manipulate, use. I still do terrible things when I need to, when it's necessary. My mother was right. I am no better."

Kassandra was suddenly in front of him. "But, you are," she said slowly, the alcohol fogging up her brain. "You're better than me, anyways. You at least try to be moral, honorable, noble, good. You put in an effort. I don't try. I never try. I am who I am and I don't try to be better than who I am. Besides, just because we do not-so good things at times doesn't make us evil. It doesn't mean we deserve to die."

Elijah looked up at her, at a loss for words. Again, Kassandra had said everything he needed to hear and more. In her own little way, she was charming. She just needed to be with the right person.

It was the alcohol that caused Kassandra to lean into Elijah, her eyes set on his lips. But her drunkenness had nothing to do with the groan that fell from her lips when his phone went off. His eyebrows even furrowed in disappointment as he pulled away from her and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"What is it that you want Kol?" he said a little bitterly as he walked towards the front door.

"Are you drunk, Elijah? And it isn't even noon yet! What have you been doing in New York City?"

Kassandra stopped listening to Elijah's conversation with his brother when he walked out of the bar. She just sighed and took a swig from her bottle. It probably wasn't a smart thing, thinking about kissing originals, especially when their mother wanted them dead. Yet, Kassandra couldn't find it in herself to regret it.

~SYH~

A/N: sorry about the lack of update. Really, I am.

We have a problem, though. Originally, I did plan to write sex scenes for this story, but FF suddenly decided to crack down on the smut writing, so I'm not going to any longer. I don't want this story to get deleted :( and I was looking forward to writing smut, as pervy as it sounds.

Thank you to: CherrySin, Lady Wesker, Belinda, Katherine Sparrow, and SomebodyWhoCares for reviewing!

Review!

~Abby :)