Summary: Kol goes to Denver to help Klaus. Jeremy is in Denver having A Better Life. Somehow their paths cross and friendship ensues.

The Baby Bro Club

Chapter 2: Interlude

''I need you to go to Denver for me,'' Nik says after Kol makes it clear to his brother that he is not staying in this cursed town any longer.

''The doppelgänger's little brother is living there,'' Nik says.

''I need you to go there so I can use him as leverage,'' he says.

''Try not to hurt him, though,'' he says.

''I made a deal with the doppelganger to leave him alone,'' he says.

''And for God's sake, be careful, I don't fancy us all dying just because you underestimate people again.''

''Screw you,'' Kol says, ''Why should I help you?''

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Nik isn't too happy about his brother's refusal, and quickly pushes Kol against the wall, getting in his brother's face. Kol glares at him.

''Do I really have to remind you of the spell our mother- the spell Esther did? We are linked together as one, which means that if one of us gets himself killed, all of us die. Esther is still out there and you know what she is like when she had a goal she wants to achieve. She will not rest until all of us are gone.''

There is a slight pause, and Kol tactfully pretends not to notice the way Niklaus blinks away what must have been a speck of dust in his eyes, because surely Nik isn't on the verge of tears? He doesn't say anything, though, because he feels it too, the hurt, the knowledge that their own mother, whom they have both cursed for their existence and cried out for in their sleep, is now doing everything she can to kill them.

(And Finn, the traitor, standing there with his judging eyes.

That betrayal hurts even more, if that is possible, because Kol remembers his older brother taking him out into the woods and showing him how to hunt. He remembers being saved from the river by his brother when his curiosity got the best of him again and the tree branches weren't quite as strong as he thought they were. He remembers being in awe of his brother's knowledge of the forest and all its inhabitants.

And now the brother that used to patiently answer the thousand questions his younger brother had for him, and that used to smile at his jokes, is looking at him with those eyes, and it hurts.)

''Esther will keep coming, so we need to get rid of this pesky binding spell. To do that we need a witch, and the strongest witch at hand will not work for us unless we have some leverage over her. She used to date the doppelganger's brother, so I need you to go to Denver to keep an eye on him. Is that a good enough reason for you?''

Kol rips his brother's hands away from his shirt and pushes him back.

''That's not what I meant. Why me? Why not Elijah, or even one of your stupid hybrids?''

Nik grinds his teeth, showing just how frustrated he is with the whole situation.

''Because I don't want you to get yourself killed here again, Kol!'' his brother says, raising his voice.

He takes a breath and calms himself before continuing in a more reasonable tone. ''I want you to go there, so we can be done with this mess as soon as possible, so we can all go our separate ways again. You want that right?''

Kol hesitates, but answers before Nik can notice. ''Yes. Of course.''

Niklaus backs down from Kol's personal space.

''Good. If you go now, you should be there before sunrise. And for once be careful. I have no wish to have to undagger you again.''

''Like they have any daggers left to use on me.''

Nik frowns, glaring at Kol to get his younger brother to take this seriously. ''Be careful, Kol. Don't let them take you by surprise, and if you hear anything about Finn or Esther, contact me.''

Kol just nods and pretends to look suitably aware enough of the dangers that Nik allows him to leave.

Three times, he thinks to himself. That's three times you told me to be careful, brother.

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After their deaths and subsequent rebirths, they quickly found out that there were very few ways to truly harm them. As they had so little to be afraid of, there was little cause for concern. He remembers telling Nik he was going off to liberate Jerusalem in one of the crusades (he can't remember which one exactly, after a while all wars look the same) and then only reply he got was ''have fun''. His brother hadn't told him to be careful for nearly a millennium.

He will never admit it, but he almost misses it. His family had always been protective of each other back when they were still human, and although it could get suffocating sometimes, as his family was often overprotective, it also gave him a sense of security. They cared about him. They had strange ways of showing it sometimes, but they cared.

(This is one of the things he could never truly hate his father for. He remembers the man who would spent hours with his sons, training them, showing them how to protect themselves. He couldn't and still can't hate that man.)

For nearly a thousand years, his older brother has shown very little concern about him, and if he is completely honest, it is probably this indifference that he resents most about his brother. He had expected he would be the most furious about his daggering, but what irritates him more is the way Nik waves it away like its nothing, like he didn't just keep his youngest brother in a coffin for the past century.

(Maybe if he really thought about it, he would realise that it is his brother's indifference that made him lash out all those times. Kol hates being ignored. He also hates being honest about himself – he knows he is messed up, thank-you-very-much – and so he doesn't think too hard about his own motivations.)

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You told me to be careful, he thinks again. You care, Nik. You may not show it, or say it, but you do.

Then, like any good younger brother he thinks, I am going to take advantage of this, brother.

(Or rather, he already had. His brother's carefully organised colored pastels had been very carefully reorganised earlier that day while they were waiting for their sister. He had been hoping to see if he could stop his brother's inevitable retaliation by reminding him of the incident with the dagger.)

Suddenly going to Denver doesn't seem like such a terrible plan. Surely he can find entertainment there.

And if he can't, well, then he will just have to make his own entertainment, will he not?

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(Not that much later one can hear a scream coming from the room Niklaus has told his siblings to stay out of – not that they listened – and which he now uses as an art room.

''Kol! What have you done to my pastels?!''

Just outside the door of the mansion, Kol grins before taking off to find a certain 'Jeremy Gilbert', living with Peter and Alice Williams, in Denver.)

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A/N: I was going to write a small scene about Kol and why he came to Denver (since some people asked for a chapter from Kol's perspective and some asked for no chapters from Kol's perspective, and I always try to make you guys happy as much as possible), but then the short scene became a longer scene and then it was longer than most of my usual chapters. So, here it is. It turned into a character study somewhere half-way, and I apologize for that.

Please review. Tell me what you want to see in this story, should I do more scenes from Kol's perspective or only Jeremy from now on? The next chapter will be Jeremy again, and will pick up where the first one left off. Also, please tell me what you think about the style in this chapter, cause it's not the way I usually write.

Reviews make me very happy. So do favourites and alerts. Thank you for all the reviews, favourites and alerts I received. I tried to respond to everyone individually, but that didn't really work out. Nevertheless, I read them all, multiple times, and they made me very happy.

A/N: Edited 22/8/2015