A/N- So I know that many of you (possibly all) were hoping that this would be the chapter where Caroline and Klaus have sex on a couch in the Bourbon St mansion. Unfortunately I'm still building up the story.
New Orleans was beautiful in the early evening, when the sun had just finished setting and twilight lit the world in a soft glow.
Especially when you were sitting in the rooftop garden of a multi-million dollar mansion in a lounge chair that cost more than some people made in a year.
Still, Katerina Petrova was feeling wistful as she looked out over the neighbourhood with a barely touched sketchpad in her lap and a pencil resting in her fingers.
Both of which she had stolen from the Original Hybrid so when she hears the ever so familiar roar from downstairs she's not at all surprised.
"Katherine!"
She rolls her eyes and spends a heartfelt thanks to the long dead architect who so designed the enormous house that vampires couldn't rely on the pattern of one's airflow to locate them.
When Niklaus Mikaelson hollers bloody murder you typically either rushed to his side or ran like hell, but Katerina is feeling lazy so she settles for setting one gorgeously heeled shoe on the ground and considers the act of standing,
A few floors below her, the shouting continues,
"Elijah, where the bloody hell is your concubine?"
Elijah Mikaelson doesn't shout, he doesn't holler or bellow but he can still raise his voice to make himself heard when he chooses,
"I haven't the slightest clue brother because as far as I'm aware I do not have a concubine"
Katerina smirks, she herself wouldn't choose this exact moment to debate relationship terminology but she does not have one thousand years' experience bickering with the temperamental King of New Orleans,
"Life-partner, girlfriend, master, whore- whatever it is she's tricked you into calling her these days, where is she?"
The gentle wind rustles through her curls and the slight chill on her bare arms in the rapidly cooling night motivates her to get to her feet and saunter through the glass doors that led to the large apartment she and Elijah shared.
She hit the lights as she went, lighting up the kitchenette, sitting area and bedroom in a warm glow, she knew the brothers would hear the electricity and lazily contemplates whether or not to start running a bath while waiting for them to reach her.
Best not, she doesn't want to flood the ensuite again.
"Fiancée?" Elijah suggests with a prickly tone.
They're getting closer and Katerina hurries the last few steps, opening the bedroom door and stepping out onto the gallery as the two brothers appear on the second floor landing.
Two men whose similarities lay in their postures, their movements and behaved like twins with only one shared parent and no shared physical features between them.
"Hello handsome" Katerina calls down the stairs, knowing it will amuse Elijah and irritate Niklaus. "Looking for pain or pleasure?"
For all his angelic features Klaus can resemble a demon when he flashes up and stops a bare inch from her, fortunately she was a vampire herself for five hundred years and her safety has been assured for the last six months so she feels very little surprise or fear when he holds the penknife up between them.
"What's this I hear about a festival tomorrow night?" he demands and she widens her eyes innocently,
"Which one? The S&M extravaganza or the Bestiality circus fundraiser?"
"Katerina" Elijah chides, stopping on the last step, bracing himself on the railing, the landing is far too small an area to be making threats and enraging immortal creatures but Klaus is forbidden to cross the threshold of her sanctuary so they'll have to make do.
"Oh…you must mean the three day Food and Fashion festival that starts this weekend" she snaps her fingers, "You're welcome"
She slips past him and his brother, clattering down the stairs in her six inch heels, "Is dinner ready?"
Rendering Klaus speechless was almost as much fun as sex.
Almost.
"Welcome?!" he splutters, pushing his brother to the side,
"I did not give permission for this to take place! I found out through Kieran and the damn council of Machiavelli wannabes"
She smirked, if there was one thing Klaus disliked more than her messing with him it was the human faction in the city who had introduced themselves to the Original family by listing their demands for bribes and power, telling Klaus that he was allowed to live in the Quarter only on their forbearance.
The Mayor alone had survived the massacre and since then Father Kieran had been the main representative of the faction, having come from a family of hunters and understanding the power that the Originals held.
Unfortunately the new council the Mayor had built were either boot lickers or back stabbers, thankfully beneath their notice but Katerina wondered if Elijah might send her in to play with these pesky little humans before another 'boating accident' tragically wiped out the top brass again.
"I could have sworn I left you a post-it note somewhere" Katerina pouted as she led the men through the hallway into the ground floor kitchen, she stared at the large fridge which held one finger painting, presumably placed there after Klaus had seen an ad or half a lesson on parenting.
"Nope…hmmm, did I send you a text?"
Klaus is gripping the penknife so tightly she wonders if he might crush it into fine dust.
Her gaze flickers to Elijah, he's leaning his shoulder against the doorjamb, his hands in his pockets, keeping an eye on the situation but unworried.
If he does not fear for her continued existence on this plane than she won't.
"Explain to me why exactly you are throwing festivals in my Quarter" Klaus demands through ground teeth and Katerina rolls her eyes, hoisting herself up onto a marble counter,
"Klaus, do you know how many times Caroline has been to NOLA? Zero. When she arrives…tomorrow I presume, this festival will highlight two of her favourite things, good food and great fashion. It will provide entertainment and give her something to focus on other than the fact that she just drove two days for a two week booty call"
The penknife lands in the cupboard a full meter away from her, a warning shot more than anything but enough for Elijah to come stand between them and raise an eyebrow at his younger brother,
"Thank-you Katherine for your thoughtfulness" he prompts Niklaus, slipping easily into the paternal role he has played dutifully for centuries, he receives a scowl in response.
Katerina and Klaus' relationship was not one of pleases and thank-you, rather it was one where communication was limited as much as possible, with messages typically relayed through Elijah.
A pointed finger raised in warning and then the younger Original was out the door, either in search of a meal, a neck to snap or a bar to deprive of top shelf liquor.
If he weren't so homicidal when he was nervous, his excitement at Caroline's impending arrival would almost be adorable.
Katerina says as much to Elijah who scoops her off the bench and carries her into the dining room where a pristine set of silver trays awaits, he sits her on the table,
"Tarator" he explains, lifting the lid of the silver bowl so she can see the cold, white soup.
"You mentioned that you've been feeling nostalgic"
That had been a throwaway comment when Elijah had wanted to know why she kept walking down to the river, she smiles at his obvious desire to please her.
"Are you hungry?" he asks, but the smell of the soup is making her nauseous so she wraps her leg around his thigh and draws him closer, cupping his face in her hands she quirks an eyebrow,
"Are you?"
He grins eagerly and lowers his head to feed from her neck, his tongue darting out and his lips kissing his favourite vein before his fangs sank in.
Katerina edged closer and his hands settled on her thighs, squeezing and rubbing them through her skinny jeans, she slipped her own hands under his jacket and gripped his shirt, enjoying the sensation of being fed from whilst wondering if dinner was going to be further delayed for sex.
"Well this is disgusting…you know some people use tables for eating food, not their debauchery"
Katerina jumped at the surprise and shouted when Elijah's fangs tore her vein, he broke away and she grabbed the pocket square from his jacket, holding it to her neck and swallowing as the blood stained the white silk.
She glared at her fiancé as the wound slowly closed up, he sighed and drew the ruined silk away to ensure that the bleeding had stopped before greeting his sister,
"Little sister" he opened his arms, "Welcome to your new home"
Rebekah Mikaelson looks around with distaste, "It'll do, though it will have to be redecorated"
"Actually" Katerina hopped off the table, "We just finished redecorating and furbishing and purchasing all the cutlery and linen and what-have-you but feel free to put your personal touches on your own room"
The blonde drops her purse on the table, essentially ignoring the doppelganger, looking to her eldest brother,
"She isn't going to be living with us on a permanent basis is she?"
Elijah smiles and drops his head, readjusting Damon's watch before addressing his sister,
"I'm rather afraid she is, you see, Katerina and I are to be wed"
Katerina smirks and tries to hide her wince as Rebekah's shriek of outrage threatens to break every piece of glass within a five mile radius.
"Have you completely lost your mind?!"
"Isn't it wonderful!" she gushes with feigned enthusiasm, "You and I are going to be sisters Becky!"
Elijah presses his hand to her lower back, "Darling, perhaps you and I should eat upstairs tonight?"
Katerina places her left hand on her chest, angling her ring finger so that the red diamond caught the light and hit Rebekah's eyes,
"But I was going to ask your sister to be a bridesmaid"
"Go!"
She chuckles and saunters past as Rebekah sneers at her, "You marry my brother over my dead body!"
Katerina laughs lightly, "Of course, would you like your corpse to be laid out on the aisle or seated in the front row?"
"Katerina!" Elijah chides and she throws her hands up, "I'm going Elijah, geez can't a girl wreak some havoc in peace around here?"
However, she obediently climbs the staircase as her lover tries to reason with his sister,
"Rebekah for the sake of our family, could you maybe quash your personal opinions for one moment and think of my happiness"
"I am" his sister screeched, stomping forward "You can't marry that devious trollop, she won't make you happy"
Katerina smirked, this last half year Elijah had frequently stated was one of the happiest times of his life.
She doesn't go to their apartment however, but to the second floor parlour beside the ballroom, curling up in the black velvet armchair she stared out the window at the wide expanse of grass and imagined running across the garden.
Running free.
When she had been running for her life, for five hundred years, in her own way she had been free.
She wasn't now.
Klaus Mikaelson had granted her a stay of execution for her having killed Marcel Gerard when he had been planning to murder Hayley and his unborn son but Elijah had served her terms of imprisonment.
"You will stay here in New Orleans with me Katerina…you shall serve Klaus and I loyally…you will not leave this city without my spoken permission…you will never run away from me ever again"
It had taken three months but Katerina had finally been able to force self-awareness upon her mind, to realise the compulsion Elijah had placed upon her during their first night together.
At the time he didn't trust her.
Now…he claimed to love her more than the sun on his face and to need her more than his daylight ring yet the compulsion remained.
Which is why she had planned the upcoming festivities.
The brothers were always distracted playing the role of benevolent dictators during these Quarter wide celebrations, meeting with the other factions, ensuring that peace would be maintained whilst presenting the image of a secure kingdom and hierarchy through their carefree enjoyment of the festival.
Katerina had hoped that she could use the opportunity to disappear into the crowd and make herself available to be approached.
Later if Elijah noticed her disappearance she could lie and say that she was partying or that she was gathering information.
After all, Katerina Petrova was one of the best information traders in the supernatural world.
She'd learnt long ago that when you lacked strength- knowledge was power. The more knowledge you had, the better deals you could make, the better partners you could ally yourself with.
She had a great deal of knowledge.
However. There was limits to what even she could understand.
For example, why her long lost daughter had supposedly tracked her down after five hundred years and trying to contact her now that she lived in New Orleans.
She had made initial contact through a middleman, a low level information trader that had supposedly been vainglorious enough to take the job, to approach Katerina without realising that he had been chosen purely because he was of so little import nobody would care if she snapped his neck and threw him in the Mississippi.
Now, Katerina was waiting for her daughter to announce her presence, to make herself known and completely upend her- if not peaceful at least easy- life in New Orleans.
What was worse was the calm before the storm, the inevitable wait between the acts.
Katerina waited day after day for the next sign from her child but none came, so she showed herself around town, flung herself desperately into life in the hope of making herself available to be reached for news.
And still she waited.
Elijah found her a mere ten minutes later after Rebekah had stormed out of the house, slamming the front door so loudly Katerina wondered whether they might need to have it repaired.
She took pride in this house, when she and Elijah had chosen it she'd allowed her imagination to run wild, picturing a future for the two of them, a life where instead of fighting daily for her survival she could debate where to have lunch with Elijah or whether or not to invite people to the Bourbon St manor or to the mansion Le Coeur Jardin.
The room has grown dark in the oncoming night but neither of them reaches for the light.
Neither of them struggles to see in the darkness, either literal or metaphorical.
Finally, Katerina decides to speak,
"So" she keeps her eyes fixed on the window, "Is Rebekah demanding my head on a silver platter or my heart to be cooked and eaten?"
Her fiancé clicks his tongue, "You may survive yet, as it stands she is currently only requesting that I present to her indisputable evidence that my brain has not atrophied or ceased to function entirely"
She rolls her eyes and hears him settle in the matching armchair opposite her,
"She will come around, she is simply bewildered and she has never had to share Niklaus or I with another female before, she has always been the little darling"
The little darling of the Mikaelson family.
That was the equivalent of being the sweetest person in the leper colony, outsiders were still going to bend over backwards to avoid you.
Especially when you had a reputation for betraying or abandoning your family every time a lover suggested it.
Elijah played with his cufflinks, ones she had bought him, "My darling, I know that the two of you aren't predisposed to care for one another, but for my sake, could you please try? After all, the cure debacle aside, the two of you have never encountered one another or had any reason to dislike each other"
That was true.
It was also the unfortunate reminder of the many reasons that Katherine and the Original family should still be enemies or conspiring to destroy everything the other held dear.
But to look back would destroy her, so Katherine rolls over so that she's sitting on the chair properly, facing him and smiles,
"For you my lord and love, I might even invite her to the wedding"
He makes a face at that, their wedding is something that is currently only a vague idea in the back of their minds, an event with a date set for 'someday'
After all, they are both immortal, one a vampire, one a champion skinny dipper in a Fountain of Youth, why rush when they have all the time in the world?
He crosses the room to take her left hand in his, stroking it with his thumb and kissing the inside of her wrist, his eyes are burning as his lips brush her skin, the brown orbs bring to mind coal glowing in a fire.
"Will you dance with me in the ballroom?" he whispers entreatingly, applying the gentlest pressure to bring her to her feet.
Katerina laughs and stares at him incredulously, "I don't think Rebekah coming home to find me naked on top of you is going to do wonders for her and my friendship"
He opens his mouth faltering and the realisation hits her,
"Oh, you mean dance-dance, I thought we were speaking in euphemisms"
He smirks and begins walking backwards, towards the large double doors that open into the grand ballroom,
"When have you ever allowed me to use such subtlety? You barely tolerate euphemisms in public, let alone the privacy of our home"
She shrugs innocently as he turns on the lights, a warm glow filling the cavernous room, bouncing off the cream and gold filigree walls and polished oak floor,
"We're grown adults, we're obviously together, why hide anything?"
A twinge of guilt courses through her but Elijah is busy with his phone, finding a classical composition to play.
He leaves the device on a stand and leads her to the centre of the floor bowing when the music filters clearly throughout the room.
Katerina curtsies, despite her skinny jeans and in moments is in his arms, spinning around the room, pretending in her mind's eye that they are at the Hofburg Palace, surrounded by Austrian nobility, in ornately decorated silk outfits, tipsy on champagne and blue blood.
They aren't afraid of family, they aren't cautious about the past and blindly optimistic about the future.
All there is the Viennese sky full of stars, the palace full of beauty and wit, and each other to love passionately as they have always done.
But something primal calls to Katerina, forces her to accept the empty ballroom in New Orleans and the pirated music on repeat as her reality.
Because New Orleans is where her daughter is waiting to meet her.
A/N- Katherine is my favourite TVD character so I hope I captured her properly.